Pacer Rasikh Salam, with two appearances for Royal Challengers Bengaluru so far in this IPL till it was postponed for a week, feels a bit relieved as his family and relatives are “okay” back home at Ashmuji in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Ghar pe sab sahi hai. Mai bhi theek hoon (Things are all okay at home. I too am fine),” he said.
However, like his statemates, Abdul Samad of Lucknow Super Giants and Yudhvir Singh of Rajasthan Royals, the 25-year-old, too, couldn’t go home during this short break and had to stay back with his IPL team.
Yudhvir Singh
Despite the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, all is not well in Jammu and Kashmir.
Rasikh and Samad may not be having too many reasons to worry. But for their statemates who don’t enjoy the comforts of the IPL, it’s a very difficult situation in Kashmir and several parts of Jammu as well. So scary was the situation in Baramulla and Pulwama that quicks Auqib Nabi and Umar Nazir Mir had to stay in the basement of their homes.
Abdul Samad
“Such intense was the shelling and drones (from the other side of the border) that these guys had to take shelter in the basement of their homes for their safety. Not just Auqib and Mir, but several other cricketers had to do the same, with shelling taking place very close to where they stay,” a Jammu and Kashmir squad member, who didn’t want to be named, told The Telegraph on Sunday.
“Even our team manager, Hilal Ahmed, had to do the same as shelling occurred just 500 metres away from his home in Baramulla,” the squad member added.
“Yes, the ceasefire has happened officially, but there has also been news of its violation. Things may appear better during the day, but from evening onwards, the disturbances tend to resurface.”
The tension thus remains in the Valley. So tense are the players that most of them don’t wish to speak about the matter.
“They are just not in the right frame of mind to talk about it. The situation is unbearable and frightening in some places over there,” the squad member stated.
However, there are a few places in the region that haven’t been too affected and are more or less unscathed as compared to the ravaging effects in several other areas of Jammu and Kashmir. One of those places is Malik Market in Jammu city, where pacer Umran Malik and his family stay.
“We are all safe. There are no longer any problems or threats, it appears,” Umran’s father, Rashid, said in the afternoon.
“We didn’t have to go down to the basements. We have been at home. Our residence is at Malik Market in Jammu city, which is still a safe place. Nothing has happened since last evening.”
Umran Malik
As a precaution, though, Rashid asked his son to wait in Hyderabad for another few days. Having recovered from injury, Umran had been doing his rehab with Kolkata Knight Riders and bowling at the nets. He had travelled to Hyderabad with the team for their game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, which was supposed to happen on Saturday.
“I have told Umran to stay there for another two to four days, in case the situation worsens again. You can’t really be 100 per cent sure of the circumstances,” Rashid said.
“See, situations may vary in different places,” the Jammu and Kashmir squad member agreed. “But they tend to worsen at night.”
Quite a few Jammu and Kashmir U-16 and U-19 cricketers are there in the high-performance camps at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Their camps are scheduled to end on Monday. It was learnt that they too were in a state of fear after coming to know of the grave situation back home. “Everything has been arranged for them to go back safely. If things turn worse once again, the last back-up plan then is to keep them safe in Bengaluru,” a BCCI official said.
Jammu & Kashmir reached the last Ranji Trophy quarter-finals. The border tensions are a threat to their progress in cricket.