Munish Ansari – The Ignored Gem

It might sound as another story of lack of opportunities for the talent in India, but for the 33-year-old Munish Ansari of Madhya Pradesh, it also proves to be a story of grit and determination that has finally made him come forth in the light of media and appreciation.

Munish Ansari is a fast bowler and is widely famous as the ‘Sehore Express’. He faced endless ignorance in his own country, even in the domestic circuit and had to shift to Oman, only to be a part of the team which has qualified for the ICC T20 World Cup 2016, to be held in India. Munish will be returning to his homeland along with the Oman team.

Munish’s brother Younus remarked that, “Discrimination was the main reason he was not given the chance in the domestic team. Despite being one of the few pace bowlers around, he wasn’t considered in the Division team as well and that forced him to leave the country six years back.”

Munish is quite infamous for bowling constantly at the speed of 145 kmph. He is known to take the better of players such as Sachin Tendulkar and Andrew Flintoff in the net sessions.

In quite a remarkable incident, Munish had thrashed Harbhajan Singh with his bowling. Having bowled Bhajji on his first delivery, Munish’s second delivery broke the bat into two pieces and third delivery made the bat slip from the batsman’s grip. Cricketers with the likes of Rahul Dravid & Wasim Akram have also praised him in the past.

It virtually seems now that India has lost a highly talented fast bowler. The domestic team of Madhya Pradesh is also not faring well since the last many seasons and sadly, they ignored such raw talent which will now go on to play in a World Cup and not for India.

However, irrespective of the breakout of this news, the MPCA secretary Milind Kanmadikar denies having the knowledge of the existence of such players and said that he needs to get more information before making a statement.