Meet the Lenasia Lightning
Sometimes you have to take a detour, before finding your way again. The Lions' Rafeeq Patel knows that.
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There is a saying about heroes, meetings, and disappointments. Rafeeq Patel is fortunate that his lived experience does not conform to it.
Patel used to miss school because of Hashim Amla. When South Africa toured Australia, Patel would wake up in the early hours to watch the Proteas legend bat and then go back to sleep after his innings was over. That meant that he missed school the next day, because he was too tired.
“I was starstruck when I first met him. I was still with the Lions Academy at the time. He’s such a humble, down-to-earth, soft spoken person. When he speaks you just want to listen and learn from whatever information you can get from him. He has a brilliant way of thinking about the game,” Patel shared.
1998 was one of Allan Donald’s best years in Test cricket, he claimed seven of his 20 five-wicket hauls in the format. That was also the year Patel was born. The pacer never got to watch the White Lightning in action but he knew of his accomplishments because of his family.
“When I asked my dad who was the best bowler he had ever watched, he always said it was Allan Donald. I grew up on stories from my dad about Allan Donald and how good and fast he was,” Patel shared.
There is a 98% chance Patel would never have worked with Amla and Donald if Covid had not happened. There is also a 98% chance that the only he would have met them was as a fan looking for an autograph after matches.
U19 cricket is a pivotal moment for any aspiring cricketer. Being selected for the SA u19 team puts you in the shop window for provincial sides, universities, and franchises on the T20 circuit. Playing at the Khaya Majola Week puts you in the running for the SA Schools team and the Cubs Week, all three are a great advertisement to universities and provincial teams.
Patel made none of those teams. In a different universe, he would have invested the time and money required to take the roundabout path to professional cricket. Patel and his family had neither. While heart-wrenching, the decision Patel made after leaving school was an easy one for him: his family needed money, so he joined the job market.
“I didn’t grow up in a wealthy family and after school I had to be bread winner. If there is anything that keeps me going in life, it is my family. They needed me to step up at point, so I did,” Patel revealed.
Patel knew that he wanted to be a cricketer from the day he executed one of the most ridiculous run-outs in his life. Mini cricket is often played on grounds without boundaries. To hit a four or six, one has to hit the ball as far as possible and leg it. That’s what happened in one match. Patel gave chase and took a shy at the stumps from a long way off.
“The ball hit the stumps and the school went crazy. Everyone ran up to me to congratulate and celebrate with me. That was quite a cool moment,” Patel recalled.
He worked towards that goal over the next 13 or so years. When he let go of it, Patel didn’t care what other job he landed as long as it put food on the table.
The first job he landed was as a call centre agent. It was a hard graft. It was the beginning of 12-hour shifts, five days a week. His shifts alternated between day and night each week. He had a monthly sales target of between 42 to 63 sales a month, which is not easy in a job where one could make numerous calls a day and fail to make a single sale.
One of the most difficult things for Patel was to watch the people he had played with and against in age group cricket carve careers in international and provincial cricket. They were living their shared dream. Patel maintained contact with the game by playing club cricket. However, he gave club cricket up 12 months later. It was all taking a toll on his body.
And despite being unhappy with sitting behind a desk in front of a screen with headsets on, speaking to clients, he consoled himself with the fact that he could provide for his family. Then Covid hit and the lockdown came into effect.
“Months later the company closed because it wasn’t doing well. I decided I was no longer doing this. I went home and told my dad that I wanted to pursue my dream,” Patel recalled.
Redowan understood his son’s love for cricket. He was probably the only person who knew the ins and outs of Patel’s game. Redowan coached Patel from the beginning to the time he walked away. He gave his son his blessing. The one piece of advice he gave Patel was that the pacer had nothing to lose but had to work harder then everyone else. That’s all Patel needed.
When he was young, Patel was known to make a brief stop at home after school before heading to the Lenasia CC for training. When he decided to give cricket another shot, he turned into his second home. About four or five months later, Ahmed Nawab, a coach with the Lions, took notice.
“He was in the nets, bowling by himself. It was easy to see that he could go far with a couple of tweaks. He was more advanced than the average club cricketer,” Nawab shared.
He invited Patel to the Lions Colts nets where they worked Patel’s alignment, energy at the crease, and a few other fundamentals. However, according to Nawab, most of their work with Patel was mental. Patel was making good progress before he fell ill and had to be hospitalised for two weeks.
“I kept thinking it was over again. But I couldn’t stop fighting. I told myself I will never give up no matter the obstacles in front of me,” Patel shared.
It wasn’t long before Patel was back and working on his game like a man hoping to recover lost time. He spent the mornings training with the Colts and Academy guys and then his afternoons honing his craft in the nets at Lenasia CC. Despite his progress in the nets, Patel had to wait close to four years before he made his Colts debut.
A year later, Hashim Amla was watching from the dugout, while Allan Donald gave a short speech before handing Patel his debut cap for the Lions in T20 cricket. He didn’t shoot out the lights and neither did he bowl badly on debut, and returned figures of 0/28. Patel put in a brilliant performance with the ball two games later. He troubled the North West Dragons and finished with two wickets for 26 runs in four overs.
When he was a youngster, in Grade 6, Patel’s school created and hosted a mini cricket World Cup tournament. Patel, who was the youngest in the team, opened the bowling and set the tone with the ball. He captured his first-ever hat-trick in the final to help his team clinch the title. It gave him an incredible feeling of joy and belonging. That’s how he felt after his performance against the Dragons.
“I have always wanted to play this level and I felt like I bowled well in that game. But, that wouldn’t have happened if the Lions and Coach Russell (Domingo), Nawab, Kurt Human, and others did not have faith in me. I am grateful to them and the Lions for giving me the opportunity and backing to be a professional cricketer,” Patel shared.
There is only one moment that comes close to rivaling the feelings he experienced after that match. He had a brief conversation with Donald. When he was growing up, Patel’s club cricket teammates used to call him Rawalpindi Express because of his pace. Then he became Lenasia Express when he was older.
“I asked Allan Donald, ‘What do you think of Lenasia Lightning?’ He said he loved it. So, now it’s Lenasia Lightning,” he revealed.
Lenasia Lightning is more than a name, it’s recognition of his abilities. It’s acceptance. It’s praise from a legend. It is all the things a young Rafeeq Patel would have loved to hear from their hero. It also everything the older Rafeeq Patel needed. Given a chance, Patel would love to be to others what Amla and Donald have been to him.
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