Fakhar Zaman is now a sensation in the cricketing fraternity. The Pakistan batsman not only became the first player from his country to break the 200 runs barrier in a single ODI innings but also broke Sri Viv Richards’ record of being the fastest batsman to reach 1000 runs in ODI cricket after playing in just 18 innings.

His rise to the top has a wonderful story behind it. Zaman was in the navy where his coach Nizam Khan realized that cricket was perhaps what suited him more. Recalling the days gone by, Navy coach Nizam Khan stated that the 28-year-old was always eager to gain knowledge and that his passion for the game increased a lot after joining the navy.

“He [Zaman] was eager to learn from a very young age and while training with the Navy, his passion for cricket increased drastically,” recalled Nizam while talking about how Zaman’s passion for the game started.

“Zaman joined the Navy in 2007-08 and was in PNS Bahadur’s operational branch,” he added. “Since the very first day he was extremely fond of cricket and one day, when he and his batch mates came for swimming, I was told that there was someone who wants to meet me. It was Zaman, who had come to tell me that he loved cricket and wanted to pursue it. My question was: How are you in love with cricket when there is no cricket in Mardan? He replied: It’s my passion.”

Nizam then added that after witnessing the quality that he had, he realized that a career in the Navy is not something made for him. He then asked then-Director Sports Captain Mehtab Ahmed to transfer him to the field and the rest, as they say, is history.

“After seeing his talent, I knew that that Navy was not for him. He was already finding it difficult to juggle cricket and the Navy academy’s commitments so I told [then] Director Sports Captain Mehtab Ahmed to get him transferred from academy training to the field of sports. After that, the rest is right in front of everyone as Zaman is not only an international cricketer, but one who can make the nation proud,” said Nizam.

Nizam then recalled of an incident where Zaman damaged a bowling machine due to playing early in the morning when the dew accumulated on the ball, which subsequently hampered the machine.

“While in the Navy, Zaman started practicing in the nets with some friends at 6 am in the morning. And because of the dew and the wet ball, he damaged the bowling machine. I was extremely angry and asked him as to why did he have to practice so early, but he just said that I will buy you a new one when I play for the national side one day,” said Nizam.

Speaking about the importance of Nizam Khan in the building of Fakhar Zaman, his first coach Azam Khan – who is also the coach of Pakistan Cricket Club – stated that Nizam played an instrumental role in making him the player that he is today.

 “Nizam brought Zaman to club practice and then the youngster started coming to me for training three days a week. Nizam also worked on his batting and constantly advised him to work on staying on the crease for a long time,” he said.