Think that you had just topped the all-India NEET examination, if and when it did not leak, and then were denied admission to a medical college without as much as an explanation.
Might you not have asked why have an all-India competition at all if admissions to medical colleges rest on considerations other than your performance in the almighty common examination for which you may have prepared in dingy rooms away from home several times over?
Now switch to the all-India national competition in the game of cricket (a religion that more Indians follow than those who follow medicine) – the Ranji Trophy contest.
After all the sweat and multiple heartbreaks of years gone by, team Jammu & Kashmir bested every other state-level team to come out winners, some six decades after Kashmir first entered the tournament – the NEET of cricket.
Many reputed Test players in many reputed Elevens fell to the astounding grit, prowess, and performance of the erstwhile lowly Kashmiris, whose undiminished self-belief gave no evidence that they came from such a beleaguered territory and so challenged a psyche as Jammu & Kashmir.
At the end of the competition, Auqib Nabi was declared “player of the tournament,” having garnered a phenomenal tally of 60 wickets during the contest at an unbelievable average of some 12.5 runs between wickets.
This same young trundler had in the year previous to the most recent one taken a haul of 40 wickets, again at an average of some 13 runs or so a piece.
Having captained the Jammu & Kashmir state team in just the second year after we were given entry into the national level tourney, believe me it had seemed inconceivable that we would ever one day be the champion team.
Trust me to know, therefore, that the achievement of the winning team this past year came as nothing short of a fictional conquest of Mt Everest in the most hostile of weather conditions.
So, NEET topper, would you not have expected this Nabi lad to have been foremost in the considerations of the national selectors for inclusion in the first Test cricket opportunity that was in the offing?
You would have, since young Indians still remain largely immune to pernicious attitudes of mind, certainly as regards the sporting life of the republic.
But, no, this outstanding Nabi is nowhere in the Test team selected to play Afghanistan in a one-off match some months from now.
This when the great Bumrah’s absence might have furnished just the right argument for blooding the outstanding Kashmiri fast bowler, both to reward him for his proven excellence and to signal to them outliers in Kashmir that they were being taken into the national heart throbbing to own them, as the rulers of the day never tire of claiming.
Kudos therefore to the great Dilip Vengsarkar who has spoken up for Nabi with upright conviction, making the telling point that if performance in the top domestic tournament does not matter as a criterion for selection to the Test team, why have the Ranji tournament at all?
But what Vengsarkar may be reckoning without is the new ethos that now pervades all aspects of national life, including national institutions.
So , what may we say to Nabi and indeed to quite a few of the other equally deserving Kashmiri Ranji players?
Chin up, keep your faith in what you deserve, which is recognised by all those who have been witness to your stupendous attainment, even if not quite by the selectors.
Such things have not happened for the first time. Take it from this old horse that the number of state level cricketers who should all have made it to the Test team but did not is a large and very distinguished one.
Which is not to say that the case of Auqib Nabi will not leave a great hurt should the selectors fail to right a wrong and proudly foreground this extraordinary bowler from our beloved Kashmir.
(This piece was published in The Wire on May 27, 2026)
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