Mumbai, the Mecca of Indian cricket, has produced some of the finest cricketers the country, nay the world, has ever seen. The illustrious list includes star names from Polly Umrigar, Vijay Hazare, Vijay Merchant and Ajit Wadekar to the great Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
However one man’s name, more often than not, fails to find a mention because his awe-inspiring domestic record is juxtaposed with a stunted international career. Playing for the Mumbai Ranji trophy team for two decades, Wasim Jaffer embodied the never-say-die spirit of the city.
Jaffer was a classical opening batsman, taught to leave the ball alone and play with a straight bat; for him, hitting the ball in the air was a crime.
So why has he never received the recognition his talent deserves?
Jaffer started his first class career by playing for the Mumbai Ranji team. Following a prolific school career, including an innings of 400 not out as a 15-year-old, he made his entry into the first-class cricket and scored a triple-century in his second match.
The innings of 314 not out helped set up a series of firsts for Mumbai: It was the first occasion that a batsman had made a triple century for Mumbai away from home and, in putting on 459 runs with his opening partner Sulakshan Kulkarni, the pair became the first from Mumbai to pass 400.
With mountains of runs in domestic cricket, Jaffer soon got the attention of National Team selectors for the Test Matches against South Africa in 2000. However, in his debut series Jaffer struggled against the experienced duo of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock. Even though he showed glimpses of a steely and unflappable temperament, his international career was put on hold.
Jaffer continued to pile on the runs in domestic cricket, however, and a string of big scores in 2001-02 won him a place on the tour of the West Indies. Once there, he stroked his way to two elegant half-centuries, though a worrying tendency to give it away when well set resulted in him losing his place at the top of the order. He reminded the selectors of his quality with some superb batting for the A team on the 2003 tour of England, but spent three years in the domestic wilderness before being recalled to the squad for the third Test against Sri Lanka in 2005-06.
He made most of his first real chance to return, against England at Nagpur in March 2006. Jaffer notched up his maiden Test hundred and followed it up with a double against West Indies in June. His ODI debut came the same November against South Africa but he was unproductive and was immediately dropped.
After losing his place in the Test side to Gautam Gambhir, Jaffer once again made a strong statement through a bumper Ranji season in 2008-09, scoring 1260 runs, including a triple-century. But he never got another chance to play international cricket. In the 31 Tests he played, Jaffer scored 1,944 runs at an average of under 35, alongside five hundreds and 11 fifties. His highest score of 212 runs in the longest version of the game came against West Indies at Antigua in 2006.
Jaffer’s excellent first-class career reads over 17,000 runs at an average of more than 50 with 51 centuries and 83 fifties. He has also played 100 List A games, in which he scored 4,289 runs at an impressive 45.62 with 10 hundreds and 29 fifties. He was less of a success in T20 cricket, but an average of 28 and a strike rate of 129.14 reads well for someone who was such a classical batsman.
In June 2015, in a tiny corner room of Khar Gymkhana, the 37-year-old right-hander officially announced that he was cutting his ties with Mumbai cricket after 19 towers and that he would instead turn out for Vidharbha in the upcoming Ranji season. He joined Vidharbha on the back of a disappointing season, one that was hampered by injuries and saw him play just two games for Mumbai.
But Jaffer was not done yet and on November 8, 2015, Jaffer walked into the record books by becoming the first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Ranji Trophy in the 81-year history of the tournament.
Wasim Jaffer belongs to a different genre of cricketers. He is a repository of a lot of traditional virtues – patience, calmness, and perseverance. There is little about him that is flamboyant. When it comes to batting in the longer format of the game, his technique and temperament are impeccable. And although many compare him with the school topper who failed to make it big later in life, his record breaking achievements deserve respect.
