Why maidan cricket is close to Zaheer Khan’s heart

The dust bowls of Mumbai have spawned many great cricketers, and former India pacer Zaheer Khan reckons that the maidans of the city remain fertile ground for scouts looking to harvest the next crop of talented youngsters.

“Maidan cricket has been one of the hallmarks of Mumbai. I started playing here in Cross Maidan, on this ground itself, and I have fond memories of this place. It actually has brought in that discipline of understanding what exactly is needed,” he said, at an event in Mumbai.

Khan, the second-most successful Indian fast bowler, was awarded the Padma Shri in January 2020.


He is an alumnus of the National Club, an institution housed in a ramshackle shed that sits at the periphery of Cross Maidan.

“You often talk about the culture of Mumbai cricket. A lot of credit must go to club cricket and the kind of intensity and passion that has been visible in club cricket in Mumbai. I’ve come here — to National Club — after a long time,” Khan said to an audience of sweat-soaked youngsters and their earnest parents.

A haul of trophies sit on a wooden shelf hammered onto the wall. The floor was littered with batting gloves, which lay flipped, belly up, dirty white, like discarded swabs in a dentist’s office.

Despite the relative modesty of his alma mater, Khan believes that there has been substantial improvement in cricketing infrastructure, with youngsters being afforded more opportunities than before. Cricketers like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shardul Thakur, both products of Mumbai’s maidans, have graduated to international cricket without suffering from stage fright.

“The past couple of decades have seen a lot of positive initiative, be it access to knowledge, academies, the IPL and interaction between Indian youngsters and renowned experienced players,” Khan said.

Khan also lauded the contribution of India’s women cricketers, whose success has spurred many girls to play for local clubs. “The Indian women’s team have been doing fantastically. They are inspiring women to take up cricket professionally,” he said.