Nagpur: Former Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal was felicitated by the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) following his retirement from professional cricket on Monday.
At a small function organised at the VCA’s Civil Lines ground soon after Vidarbha’s 115-run win over Haryana in the Ranji Trophy match, Faiz was honoured with a ‘shawl’ by VCA Secretary Sanjay Badkas. Former India international pacer Prashant Vaidya, who is also the Chairman of VCA’s Cricket Administration and Development Committee (CADC), spoke in glowing terms about Faiz’s achievements.
Vaidya, along with Umesh Yadav, Ranji coach Usman Ghani and Badkas presented Faiz a silver salver for his outstanding contribution to Vidarbha cricket. Vaidya described Faiz as Vidarbha’s best-ever batsman and congratulated him on an illustrious career and hoped that he would take up a suitable role in future to serve Vidarbha cricket.
A teary-eyed Faiz touched upon his 21-year-long journey in First-Class cricket as his team-mates, coaches, present and former, as well as support staff and match officials applauded the senior pro. The entire Haryana contingent too gave Faiz a warm send off. Faiz made special mention of former ICC Chairman and ex-BCCI and VCA President Shashank Manohar, for his guidance and encouragement.
It was also an emotional moment for Faiz’s family members who were present on the occasion. Faiz’s career spanned two decades during which he represented Team India in a solitary ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2016, scoring an unbeaten 55 as India won the game by 10 wickets. He is the only Indian batter to have scored fifty or more in his lone ODI appearance. Faiz made his debut in First Class cricket against J&K in 2003, scoring 151 runs in his maiden innings.
Faiz’s crowning glory was leading Vidarbha to successive Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup titles in 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. He also won the Duleep Trophy twice (2018-19 and 2019-20). In the 53 first class matches — Ranji Trophy 45, Duleep Trophy 6, Irani Cup 2 — he was captain, Faiz ended up forcing outright victories on 21 occasions. Faiz also led Vidarbha 36 times in List-A matches and in 27 T20 matches The function was conducted by VCA CEO Farokh Dastoor.
