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COVER
STORY: MOHAMMED AZHARUDDIN
The
Difficult Years
As
his game took off, his personal life plummeted. Wife Naureen brought up
their two sons while Azhar travelled the world. Recalls an old associate:
"He never brought Naureen out of the home. He suppressed her personality
and made her a traditional housewife." Kulkarni met a disturbed Azhar
at cci in 1993. "He kept grumbling about his family and friends,
something he had never done in the past," he recalls.
During those
difficult years, 1992-94, as he drifted away from his family, his own
stock kept growing. According to details available in the Madhavan report,
Azhar's earnings shot up from Rs 4.9 lakh in 1991-92 to Rs 23.48 lakh
in 1992-93. In 1993-94 they rose to Rs 36.63 lakh and by 1994-95 he was
earning Rs 1 crore annually. He began to spend it equally quickly on designer
watches, clothes and cars. When a friend from his Osmania University days
warned him about burning money, Azhar replied, "I didn't have money
before, did I? I have it now, so I'm spending it. If it gets over, I can
always go back to where I began."
At the same
time, he met model and actress Sangeeta Bijlani and made a break from
his past as a conservative and conventional, if somewhat unhappy, Hyderabadi
father and husband. Says the friend: "In many ways Azhar had a suppressed
childhood. He wasn't even allowed to see movies. And here was a very glamorous
woman interested in him. It simply bowled him over." Physiotherapist
Ali Irani said he once ticked off Azhar in 1995 for talking to Bijlani
on his cell phone -during a team meeting.
Bijlani is
now popularly cast as the woman who "spoilt" the simple Azharuddin
by introducing him to Mumbai's social circuit. But others believe Azhar's
love of the "good life" and the benefits of being young, rich
and famous had already got under his skin. It was the time his friendship
with Ajay Sharma and the Delhi cricketer's circle of alleged bookies grew
and also when the underworld is said to have made its first tentative
approach towards the Indian captain. At first things were fairly innocent
revolving around inside information and sugarcoated with "gifts"
given as appreciation for his talents "Cricketers tend to be fairly
simple people," says one observer. "You flatter them and they
get flattered."
Kulkarni
believes Azhar was particularly vulnerable then. "It was a tough
time for him. His marriage fell apart in 1996 and he didn't have the backing
of his parents who were very upset with him." Former coach Sandeep
Patil says, "When you're lonely, you may have money and fame, but
can't sleep at night."
It was the
1996 tour of England where a new and not very popular Azharuddin began
to make himself known. A journalist on the tour recalls Azhar boasting
constantly about his £350 trousers even as a member of the team
management complained to a bcci official in private: "He has no time
for anyone, neither the team nor his cricket. When he's in the dressing
room he's on the mobile, when we return to the hotel he's not accessible
to us." He lost the captaincy but not his place in the side, remaining
an awkward presence in a team led by Tendulkar who didn't quite trust
him.
Azhar's second-coming
as Indian captain was brief and the rumours about bookies returned with
them. In 1997 former coach Anshuman Gaekwad sought out Azhar worried because
an anonymous caller had told manager Venkat Sundaram that India would
throw its match against Sri Lanka. Gaekwad says, " I took things
at face value. Azhar said, 'why do you believe all these things, don't
worry... ' Had we lost the match maybe I could have been a little more
circumspect."
Known as
the Great Survivor, Azhar's absence from the Indian side after the 1999
World Cup ended with a century in his 99th Test, against South Africa
in Bangalore. He told Kulkarni that his God was still looking after him.
At the same time, Hansie Cronje and Sanjay Chawla began to talk to each
other on their cell phones.
Today Azhar
is isolated, dependent largely on Bijlani who has remained loyal and is
his only strength. Whether or not he moves the courts, Azharuddin will
still do his own time. Not least because the bcci and the Sports Ministry
need victims. Not only because his teammates, who stretched themselves
to the limit, and the public, who saw music when he put bat to ball, or
his peers, feel betrayed. Mohammed Azharuddin mocked his gifts and tried
to play heads or tails with his own soul. This was one toss he was bound
to lose.
-with
Amarnath K. Menon
Pg.
1
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