The day Zarawani lost his head

Think Allan Donald. What are the images that come to mind? The animated duels with Michael Atherton in the mid-to-late 1990s stands out most prominently but on the fringes is another: Sultan Zarawani of the United Arab Emirates, broad-shouldered, standing with a dense mop of black hair tucked under a broad-brimmed floppy hat, taking guard to face Donald – in his pomp - on his first ball in his maiden World Cup. It was a ludicrous sight, prompting many to wonder whether Zarawani thought he was a Viv Richards or a Richie Richardson or a Carl Hooper.

And it was a sight that angered the South Africans, already bothered by the 40-degree heat in Rawalpindi, who wanted to wrap up the match as soon as possible after Gary Kirsten had hit what was then the second-highest one-day score to set up a total of 321. So, back to Donald – did he get angry? Was it a slight to the fast man’s ego to watch an Associate player showing no respect by walking out helmetless? Did he just want to flatten Zarawani and teach him a lesson? With Donald returning to his second World Cup in the subcontinent, this time as New Zealand’s bowling coach, he agreed to revisit the incident.

“When he walked in to bat he wore just a normal floppy hat. I didn’t know who he was. The game was going nowhere. I had just got a wicket. A furious Pat Symcox came to me and said ‘Listen, who does this guy think he is?’ During the huddle Jonty Rhodes took up the fight, saying the batsman had no idea about cricket. He had come into this game without any cricketing pedigree, and had apparently promised his players that if UAE won one game in the World Cup, he would buy each a Mercedes Benz or something like that. But Jonty didn’t want me to bowl Zarawani a bouncer as he thought he couldn’t bat and I might hurt him. Someone else blurted out, ‘Just knock his head off.’ I said I’d bowl a bouncer, but make sure it went way over.

“The next ball was a perfect on-the-money bouncer: he could not really duck, he sort of stood up and just flinched. It really hit flush on his head. The ball almost came back to me, that’s how hard it hit him. His hat fell off. Everyone rushed to him to check if he was ok. He said he was fine, picked up his bat and said he was ready to bat. Steve Bucknor, one of the on-field umpires on the day, came up to me and told me whether I knew he could not bat. ‘There’s no way I’m bowling him another bouncer,’ I assured him. Symcox was fuming, he wanted another bouncer. I told him the game was dead, they had lost, and I was not going to bowl another bouncer.”

Zarwani lasted seven balls but later admitted to Donald he was “stupid” not to wear a helmet.