Perth: Can you imagine any cricketer willingly helping a photographer identify his team’s players? Nawroz Mangal, the Afghanistan opener and former captain, does not mind it, unlike the many stars playing in the World Cup.
Mangal came up the hard way and hence he has not forgotten his past despite being a very popular cricketer now. When Gulf News asked him about how it has been to play in the World Cup and what his message to the UAE supporters, he said: “Soon after the World Cup it will be back to UAE to continue playing our matches there. I am so happy when thousands from my country living in UAE come to watch me. My message is that like they all come and support me when I play in UAE, please support us during our matches in the World Cup watching us play.”
Mangal knows that he would not have been in Perth but for his coach Taj Malek. “My father believed that there was no livelihood to be made out of cricket and he wanted me to study. I stopped studying after Grade VIII. My father then asked me to join his business but my coach promised my father that I will become a great player. I don’t know if I am a great player but I know I haven’t disappointed my coach or my father,” he said.
Mangal admits that he could not make a livelihood out of cricket till 2010. “We got nothing out of playing cricket now but we get pocket money, so I am happy. I still live in a house that was built by my father and not out of my money but recently, our former president Hamid Karzai has given me a flat in Kabul for qualifying for the World Cup.”
Mangal is delighted over what cricket has given him. “Now people recognise me. I feel proud I played cricket. It is a huge honour I am from a country that give respect to our heroes.”
An fan of Sachin Tendulkar, Mangal said: “I love watching him and when I say he is my idol, a lot of people in Pakistan who are
angry about it. They ask me why are you liking an Indian batsman. I tell them I have only batsman in my mind that I admire.”
