{"id":16163,"date":"2022-02-14T08:17:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T08:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/?p=16163"},"modified":"2022-02-14T08:17:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T08:17:39","slug":"from-mardan-to-mirpur-sajid-khans-inspiring-cricket-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/2022\/02\/14\/from-mardan-to-mirpur-sajid-khans-inspiring-cricket-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"From Mardan to Mirpur, Sajid Khan’s inspiring cricket journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mardan-born off-spinner Sajid Khan has made rapid strides over the course of the last two years<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Karachi (Web Desk) – Mardan-born off-spinner Sajid Khan has made rapid strides over the course of the last two years but his ascent to the highest level of cricket is a tale of relentless struggle, hard work, determination and a never-say-die attitude spread over two decades.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in Harare last season and has already collected 18 wickets in his first four Tests.<\/p>\n

The highlight of Sajid\u2019s short Test career has been his heroics in the Mirpur Test against Bangladesh in December, the off-spinner took 12 wickets in the match including eight in the first innings to lead Pakistan\u2019s innings and eight runs victory in the ICC World Test Championship fixture.<\/p>\n

According to Sajid his cricketing story begins at the age of eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy story begins from when I was eight years old. I have two elder brothers, one is a rickshaw driver the other runs a grocery shop. Only those without a father would know what a struggle it is. When I grew up and started college I used do to some odd sport related jobs like fixing bat handles and grips and making between PKR 4 to 500, I used to also sell cell phones to make some money that I could spend on purchasing cricket gear.<\/p>\n

Despite his obvious promise and potential, Sajid failed to find a permanent slot in Peshawar sides to the sheer quality and depth that the first-class and Grade II squads especially as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regularly started unearthing players of international quality.<\/p>\n

Sajid decided to try his luck in Dubai where he juggled between a work at the Dubai Airport and weekend cricket opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter U18 cricket, I barely got a chance to play Grade II cricket because Peshawar had a quality side and I could not make my way through that is when I left for Dubai. I used to work at Dubai Airport for five days and play cricket two days in the week. I had a six months visa but I didn\u2019t even stay for six months as my mother asked me to return.\u201d<\/p>\n

After returning from Dubai, Sajid finally made a long awaited breakthrough as Imran Khan Snr handed him perhaps the best cricket gift he could have hoped for at that stage of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found an opportunity to appear in Grade II trials, I got selected and joined the camp. At the camp Imran Khan Snr saw me, at that time Imran had played a few Tests for Pakistan, he asked me if I had cricket shoes but I couldn\u2019t say to him I didn\u2019t. Imran realised that I didn\u2019t have cricket shoes so he took out a pair of cricket spikes and handed them to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first match was for Peshawar against Wapda, with-in four overs I had taken six wickets and that is when my career took off. Once the domestic structure was revamped, I got an opportunity to play for the second XI and I scored 96 runs and took 13 wickets in a match against Balochistan. I was immediately picked for the first XI (first-class) and I played my first match against Balochistan and took eight wickets.<\/p>\n

Sajid still has a long journey ahead of him and has big aspirations and dreams, he insists that hard work, perseverance and determination is what is required to succeed in cricket instead of a recommendation or source. He is a firm believer in letting your performance talk for you as he credits his mother for the turnaround in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who claim that you can\u2019t play cricket without any recommendation or source lie, I would say it is a total lie. If you work hard and stay determined you are rewarded, I have fought hard and struggled for 20 years and then only have I reached here without any recommendation or source. I only work hard and respect my elders, whatever I have achieved, I have achieved due to my mother\u2019s unflinching support. I owe everything to her and even today I look up to her for support, guidance and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mardan-born off-spinner Sajid Khan has made rapid strides over the course of the last two years Karachi (Web Desk) – Mardan-born off-spinner Sajid Khan has made rapid strides over the course of the last two years but his ascent to the highest level of cricket is a tale of relentless struggle, hard work, determination and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16165,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16163\/revisions\/16165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}