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Sunday, 4 December, 2011
Amir KhAn’s
toughest
bout
Comment gAretH A DAVies Five minutes” walk from the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, where Amir Khan is honing his skills for his latest fight, is the apartment block where he spends six months of the year. It is late afternoon and we are sitting next to the swimming-pool, where Khan is about to feast on chicken and rice. It has been another exhausting day. It began with a dawn run on the beach at Santa Monica, followed by rigorous, strength-sapping sprints up and down wooden steps where the coast road meets a raised cliff. “There are 256 going up and on another flight there are 156 going down,” he says with a grin. “The most I have done is 10 sets.” The two-hour sessions are designed to build strength and stamina in his legs. Then, after a high-protein breakfast and a few rounds on the Xbox (fighting games), he has a 90-minute siesta before heading to the Wild Card for a further two hours of stretching, sparring and gym work. The routine runs like clockwork, six days a week, so that Khan is in peak condition for his world-title encounter next Saturday with Lamont Peterson. The fight, in his opponent”s hometown of Washington, DC, is Khan”s fourth in the US and the sixth defence of his WBA world light welterweight title. It is also the first defence of the IBF world title he won in July in a unification fight with Zab Judah. Poolside, Khan exudes a relaxed air. “You have to be confident when you”ve got someone in front of you who wants to beat you and take the title from you. But I think people mistake my confidence for arrogance or cockiness,” he says. “I know what physical tools I have, I know what I can do. So I don”t have to prove anything. The thing is, I”m never scared. It”s just in the blood, really. My family come from a warrior clan background, the Rajput tribe from the Punjab, and that could be one of the reasons. Going into fights just seems normal to me.” Khan”s grandfather, Lall, came to Britain in the late 1960s, like many Pakistanis. The family were landowners from Rawalpindi; grandfather Khan saw the opportunity of a better future for his family in Britain and set up home in Halliwell, Greater Manchester, later bringing his wife, Iqbal Begum, and two sons over. Amir”s father, Shah, was seven years old at the time. Lall got a job in a cotton factory, working his way up to manager. Shah trained as a mechanic, set up his own garage, and then had a scrapyard. He now oversees Amir”s career full-time. “We are all hard workers,” Khan says. “It”s
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in the genes. We”re not ones to just sit there and chill. Once I”ve had a rest in between fights, I have to go back into the gym. I”ve got to be doing something with my life. My coach has to get me to slow down sometimes.” The young Amir was a hyperactive child. “I was never scared of anything, even then. I was always misbehaving, testing myself.” In other words, he was constantly getting into fights, not because he was a troublemaker but because he had no qualms about taking anyone on, no matter how big they were. He was eight when his father took him to an amateur boxing club in Halliwell and placed him under the tutelage of a local coach, Tommy Battle. “It was the greatest thing that had ever happened to me,” Khan says. “I loved it straight away.” He had found his niche. Three English schoolboy titles and three junior national amateur titles followed. In 2003, aged 16, he won a gold medal at the Junior Olympics in Detroit, followed by another gold at the Junior World Championships in Korea the year after. While he was recognised as an exceptional young talent, many felt that the senior Olympics in 2004 was too soon for him. Some selectors didn”t want him to go. After much debate. He won Britain”s only boxing medal of the Games. Khan talks a lot about using his position “to give something back”. After the 2005 Kashmir earthquake he visited Pakistan to hand out food parcels to displaced children. His former coach, Tommy Battle, now runs the Gloves Community Gym, a converted warehouse in Bolton in which Khan invested £800,000. Local boys pay between 50p and £1 to use the facilities, and the club has already nurtured junior champions. “Naughty kids come in to do some training. We give them discipline,” Khan says. On a grander scale, he says he wants to start his own charitable foundation. Khan”s level-headedness is refreshing in a world of giant egos, big talkers and cod-philosophers. Inside the ring, he says his secret is that he does not allow himself to think too deeply about fighting. “I just let it happen. When I go into the ring I don”t think too hard or too deep, I just sit there before I go into a fight and go through everything Freddie has told me in my mind, quickly – work on my jab, my left hook, watch my opponent”s right, be careful not to get trapped on the ropes. As soon as I step inside the ring, everything comes naturally, it”s like a dream. Before you know it, it”s over, and that is why I like watching my fights over again, because half the time I”ve forgotten what I did. It”s like after you drive a car: you don”t remember changing gears, you just do it all without thinking about it.” (TELEGRAPH)
There is much joy to be found in Warne’s wizardry, Saqlain’s doosra and Swaan’s subtleties but for me personally, nothing comes close to watching a genuine fast bowler in action bowling with his tail up, not even a Mark Waugh on-drive. Shoaib Akhtar summed the visceral and almost surreal feeling quite succinctly when he said, “It gets your blood going, the adrenaline is pumping, you're in a fight. To me that's what cricket is all about.” Maybe I am a traditionalist or maybe it’s the illustrious list of fast bowlers the country has produced but I have always envisaged our bowling line up to consist of 3-4 quickies supplemented with a twirler. However, the last couple of years have seen a complete role reversal with Pakistan operating, with much success mind you, with a three pronged spin attack. This is not to say that the fast bowling resources in the country have dried up; with Gul virtually guaranteed a spot barring injury, there are as many as 4-5 fast bowlers vying for the last available bowling spot and with all three spinners in the form of their lives, they have their work cut out if they are make it into the playing eleven. If the 90’s was the era of the two W’s, indications are that the 2010’s will belong to the two A’s. Leading the pack of slow bowlers is the Faisalabad-born offspinner, Saeed Ajmal. Ajmal’s debut at the ripe old age of 30 raised a few eyebrows but unlike others before him, he let his bowling do the talking. 2011 has so far seen Ajmal pick up 30 ODI wickets at 17.63 and consolidate his position as Pakistan’s number one test spinner courtesy 41 wickets in 6 tests. Admittedly the opposition haven’t been the toughest but you can only play what’s in front of you and those facing Ajmal have been left totally flummoxed and bamboozled by the subtle variations and the beautifully disguised doosra. While not quite reaching the giddy heights Saqlain acquired in the late 90’s, Ajmal, has carved a comfortable niche for himself, a niche that seems him sit at the top of the ICC ODI bowler rankings, ahead of his contemporaries Swaan and Vettori. There are so many things that one can admire about Ajmal, besides his bowling; his character for one is in no doubt as Mazhar Majeed found out while rounding up cricketers to spot fix for him. He might seem a bit grumpy while he’s bowling but his sense of humour and confidence shine through while giving interviews (YouTube ‘Saeed Ajmal interviews’ and you will know what I mean). And then there is the resolve and fight and his sheer bloody mindedness to prove his detractors wrong. Lesser mortals may have succumbed after ‘that’ Hussey hurricane but Ajmal, like a true champion soldiered on and became a better bowler after that experience. Critics, including myself, were sceptical about his ability to perform in tests but he has started to prove us wrong on that front as well. Fans always warm to a player who tries his best and Pakistan is indeed lucky to have someone, in Ajmal, who leaves everything out on the field. While Ajmal continues to have a stellar year, the fortunes of Shoaib Malik, continue to dwindle. An uninspiring comeback against the Zimbabweans has been followed by a lacklustre display against the Lankans resulting in the knives being drawn from many quarters. He has traditionally played spin very well but was all at sea against the mediocre Sri Lankan spinners which indicate that he does not have much confidence in his game at the moment. Luckily for Malik, he has the support of Misbah, who reckons that Malik is only one knock way from regaining his touch. Keeping the bigger picture in mind, it would not be a bad idea to drop Malik for now so he can go back to the domestic circuit and regain his form. Pakistan has some important tours coming up and someone of Maliks’ ilk is required in the middle order for Pakistan. An inform Malik is a valuable asset especially in the middle overs for he is adept at playing the waiting game and launching an all out assault if need be. Lastly Malik should take a cue from Hafeez and start bowling again; even with all his qualities, Malik is probably never going to be an all conquering batsman so doubling up as a spinner will only increase Malik’s usefulness to the team.
Those facing Ajmal have been left totally flummoxed and bamboozled by the subtle variations and the beautifully disguised doosra