It happened just before the 1980-81 Australia tour. Syed Mujtaba Hussein Kirmani, ‘Kiri' to all who know him, was playing a first division league game in Bangalore. The eagle-eyed wicketkeeper had just made a return to the Indian side after being sidelined for the 1979 World Cup. He was in superb form claiming 19 victims in his comeback series against Pakistan. But yet it happened.
Kiri recounted that fateful moment on the sidelines of the launch of Widex's new Hearing Aid Centre in the city. “The game was played on a concrete wicket that had a deep ridge on one end. The groundsman had covered the ridge with the coir mat. Vishy (G. R. Viswanath) was bowling his harmless leg-spinners. He had a deceptive faster one, of which I was aware. Vishy bowled one of those express deliveries that hit the ridge and flew. I took evasive action but the ball struck my left jaw. Though an ice-pack reduced the pain and swelling I was diagnosed with a fractured jaw.”
Kiri travelled to Australia but was disturbed by a ‘hissing sound' in his left ear. “On my return I consulted my ENT specialist and got a thorough inspection of my ear done. By this time I had started experiencing a slight change in hearing from my left ear to right. Quite unconsciously I was now straining my ear to understand what the other person was saying. At home, when the television was on, I kept asking for the volume to be increased. Slowly, I began to get a bit frustrated because I knew that I was not hearing properly. One option was surgery, using a hearing aid was another.”
Some sort of stigma
Since then Kiri has been using digital hearing aid technology. “I have been saved from embarrassing situations on so many occasions. It has worked amazingly well so far. Strangely, there is some sort of stigma attached to being hearing impaired. People have their eyes checked and have no qualms using spectacles. In fact, it has become a sort of fashion statement. But getting your hearing checked and seeking remedy has still not caught up here.”
With Kiri around the conversation naturally veered towards the Indian Premier League, Indian cricket and wicketkeeping. The IPL, Kiri believes, has created an absolutely new form of the game and new spectators. It is more of entertainment than cricket. “In most IPL venues I have seen people rush to occupy the seats close to the cheer-leaders. Entertainment comes first here, cricket later. In this form of cricket technique takes a back seat. Take wicketkeepers for example. They need only stoppers who can swing the bat a bit. Ask them and they say they are following the Aussie style of wicketkeeping. I can't understand this.”
Now, director of Karnataka Cricket Academy Kirmani is a bit sore about the over emphasis on theory in coaching. “After my playing days were over I had volunteered to coach. But a senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official to whom I spoke asked me if I had the ‘certificate' to coach. I was stunned. We have the National Cricket Academy just next door in Bangalore. A former Indian fast bowler now teaches off-spin here when we have one of the greatest off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna in the same city.”
By now the organisers were waiting rather impatiently for Kiri to join them on the dais. A few reporters crowding around were still shooting questions at him. And Kiri was catching them all as surely and cleanly as only he could.
Would you have adapted to this T-20 form of the game? The question came quick and fast. And Kiri's answer came in a flash. “Why not? Not just me anyone from my generation would have fitted in comfortably. It's all about adjustment and attitude. Everything hinges on technique, strong basics. And don't you think I look physically fit for a good game of cricket,” the dapper cricketer signed off with his trademark laugh.
