KARACHI: Having recently arrived back in his hometown here after his debut series as a Pakistan player, Saim Ayub was all smiles as he shook hands with team-mates and staff in the Omar Associates dugout on the sidelines of the Naya Nazimabad Ramazan Cricket Tournament on a breezy Saturday night in the posh, gated housing society’s floodlit cricket ground.

While Saim, sporting a crisp white polo and a pair of light blue jeans, gathered congratulations from the metropolis’ close-knit cricket community, his team was being subjected to an onslaught by Attock Traders’ Yousuf Afridi out in the middle during the semi-final.

With a 128 to chase on a tricky surface, Omar Associates’ manager Azam Khan — a fatherly figure for the squad — wouldn’t have thought twice to send in Saim to face the new ball had the stylish southpaw been available to play.

Almost exactly a year earlier, he was. And was the one who lead the side to the tournament title. The rest, as they say, is history.

The last 12 months have seen Saim emerge as one of the hottest prospects in T20 cricket at the domestic level; finishing as the second-highest run-scorer in the National T20 Cup before being picked up by Peshawar Zalmi for the HBL Pakistan Super League, in which a more than impressive show earned him a called up in the Pakistan squad for the recent three-match T20 International series against Afghanistan.

But before Omar Associate’s openers Imad Alam and Mohammad Nafay went in to commence the chase, Saim had left the scenic venue.

The pitch was dry and Attock Traders spinners made hay of it. Despite being the strongest side taking part in the tournament, Omar Associates had no answers.

A mature partnership between Pakistan international Anwar Ali and Test veteran Asad Shafique did give the side some stability, only before it failed to make the final for the second time in a row.

Beating Omar Associates had got Attock Traders captain and another Test veteran in Khurram Manzoor ecstatic and the batter had a smile on his face until at least 15 minutes after the match was over.

What was it about a mere Ramazan tournament match that Khurram was so happy to win it? Why were Asad and Anwar being too cautious with their approach with the bat? These tournaments are meant to be entertaining, aren’t they?

But had these events been only about entertainment and festivity, they may have not produced a batter of Saim’s potential.

Ramazan T20 tournaments in Karachi date back to the 60s, when no one could even imagine T20 cricket being played at international level.

The city’s neighbourhood of Nazimabad, some claim, was where the format was born and the late-night hours of Ramazan had always been considered a great opportunity to play cricket.

Over the years, Ramazan tournaments — like the one at Naya Nazimabad and others including the one played during the day at the Karachi Gymkhana — have gained a level of prestige that participating sides treat them as professional competitions.

While these events serve business tycoons funding their operations and broadcast on national television as an impactful advertising tool, the participating players benefit massively.

“When a player is new and no one has seen him, these live tournaments give him exposure and the opportunity to be noticed by the country’s best coaches and teams, Asad told Dawn, adding that the quality of the participating players in Ramazan tournaments helps the competition.

“These teams are not club sides,” added the veteran. “Players with first-class cricket experience play here and it helps the youngsters gain confidence if they perform against high-quality players.”

Asad’s teammate Omair Bin Yousuf, who has been playing first-class cricket for the last four to five years and made his PSL debut for Quetta Gladiators recently, echoed his senior’s views on Ramazan tournaments.

“Ramazan cricket is very competitive; both in terms of the pitches and the players,” he said. “The participation of international level players makes such tournaments an opportunity for us to groom ourselves.

Other than Ramazan tournaments, Omair claimed the players of his level don’t get too many opportunities to play high-quality cricket at the local level.

“We play just a few matches of such quality over the year and also because it goes live it is a great stage for us to prove our mettle and increase our chances of becoming international cricketers,” said the right-handed batter.

Saim made the most of playing Ramazan cricket tournaments and ended up being capped for Pakistan and became a matter of pride for his teammates including Omair.

“I’ve been playing with Saim for a long time now, he is talented and very hard working and not many players have the quality that he has,” said Omair. “It has been very heartening to see him improve himself over the past few years and go on to play in the PSL and for Pakistan.

“It is a huge achievement for him and for us as well, because he played with us and we also want to emulate what he did.”

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2023