MAJID JAHANGIR
His only passion was cricket and his fiery pace, feared by batsmen, could have carried him into the Indian cricket team, say his former teammates.
The sheer pace of Fayaz Ahmed Gashroo’s bowling had earned him fame in the late eighties. There was strong hope that Fayaz would be the first from the state to represent the Indian cricket team.
But that was not to be. Known as ‘Marshall’ (after former West Indies bowler Malcolm Marshall feared by many batsmen) in the cricket circles of Kashmir, Fayaz vanished in the nineties, when he was only 20 years old. When militancy erupted in Kashmir in 1990, Fayaz was picked up by the Central Reserve Police Force, never to return, say his family members. There was no apparent reason for the arrest.
They say Fayaz was picked up by CRPF in the apple town of Sopore on May 19, 1990 near the court complex. “We met the CRPF officer who arrested Fayaz. But he refused to divulge any information and denied having arrested him,” says Fayaz’s older brother Ghulam Mohammad.
Soon after Fayaz went missing, the family members started their search. They left no stone unturned to locate him, but to no avail. “We also met the International Red Cross team (IRC) during its visit to Kashmir in the early nineties. They assured us of proper action. But all in vain,” he says. “Seventeen years have passed and I hope I will meet my brother in Jannat (next world).”
The family has lost all hope of Fayaz’s return. But they keep his memories alive. There are a few pictures of the cricketer in the house. There are trophies, won by the pace bowler during his short career, lined up on the shelves. His cousin says. “How can we forget him?”
“The trophies and photographs keep him alive in our family,” he says pointing toward the trophies. Fayaz’s friends and teammates still recall how great a bowler he (Fayaz) was. “Fayaz would certainly have played in national fixtures,” says Showket Ahmad who was his fan in the late ‘80s. “When he played for the college team, most of the students would leave classes to watch him in action,” he recalls.
To keep the name of this cricketer alive, his friends and teammates have been organising a tournament in his name every year. “By holding the Fayaz Memorial Cricket tournament, we pay homage to this great player,” says Baha-ud-Din a cricketer who once played alongside Fayaz. “He was a legend. By such tournament we want to convey our young cricketers how cricket crazy he
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