Sport after Hampton: Zafar Ansari
By Mahir Olcer
Zafar Ansari joined Hampton School in 2005. He loved playing cricket and, an all-rounder, played for Hampton’s 1st XV for an amazing five years. Zafar Ansari was also a talented pianist, and enjoyed politics, philosophy, sociology, and history. With all these talents he was chosen as one of the school captains of the school.
At the age of eight, Zafar Ansari was scouted by Surrey cricket club. Joining Hampton School in 3rd year, he was a star pupil and had a sport and academic scholarship at the school.
During his time at Hampton, after Zafar won the County cup and became finalist, he was named the leading all-rounder in schools cricket by the Cricket Society after scoring 1111 runs (including eight centuries) and taking 35 wickets in 2010. He won county-level competitions, and with all of these individual accomplishments, he lead his team to national competition while winning the Wisen’s leading all-rounder.
On April 2, 2011, Zafar Ansari made his first-class debut for Cambridge MCCU against Essex. A few months later he was called up for his T20 debut for Surrey against Essex. And after four years of waiting Zafar Ansari was called up to an ODI (One Day International) match for England against Ireland late 2015, having already scored 700 runs and taken 44 wickets that year.
As Zafar Ansari was still playing very good cricket during his time playing cricket for Surrey, he had racked up a few notable achievements; he took 5 wickets for 33 runs in his third first-class match while playing for Cambridge MCCU, scored his first first-class century (112) against Derbyshire in 2014, and achieved his career-best bowling figures of 6 for 30 against Nottinghamshire.
But despite him playing incredible cricket on several different fronts, Zafar had other ideas; on April 26, 2017, he retired at the age of 25. Zafar had felt that cricket did not complete his life fully but only partly; he struggled to focus with international requirements towards the end of his career, his two dreams conflicted and did not match together. Zafar also found international tours difficult and isolating.
Since the end of his cricket career, he has had many jobs, such as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (Ofgem), and now Zafar Ansari is a lawyer at Blackstone Chambers.
Zafar Ansari has said that he has not regretted his choice to retire from cricket and has enjoyed the jobs he has worked at.
