For sub-continental spin masters, all the world’s a stage | Cricket News – Times of India

What’s common between New Zealand spin sensation Ajaz Patel, Ish Sodhi, Moeen Ali, Imran Tahir, Adil Rashid, Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj. All of them are cricketers of Asian origin and all of them are quality spinners, representing countries other than India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.
Ali and Rashid are England’s go-to men in white ball formats. Tahir, till recently, was a key member of the South African side, especially T20s and Patel, on Saturday became only the third bowler in Test history to pick up 10 wickets in an innings after Jim Laker and Anil Kumble at the Wankhede in Mumbai. This, after he had starred in a heist in Abu Dhabi on debut where he bowled Kiwis to a sensational four-run win over Pakistan in 2018. He is 33-years old and was born in Mumbai, but his parents migrated to New Zealand when he was eight, in 1996.

Earlier too we have seen cricketers like Dipak Patel who opened the bowling for New Zealand in the 1992 World Cup with path-breaking success. Jeetan Patel too has represented Kiwis with distinction and especially Warwickshire with great results and today he is England’s spin-bowling consultant. Leg-spinner Sodhi, in T20s, is quite a handful.
England have also been well served in the past by Monty Panesar who took 11 wickets in the famous 2012 Mumbai Test as he combined with Swann to destroy India on a Wankhede dust-bowl.
Australia, who are perennially searching for the next Shane Warne, have fielded Fawad Ahmed, a leg-spinner of Pakistani origin in ODIs and T20s. Incidentally, Ahmed is a cousin of Pakistan leg-spin star Yasir Shah.
Australia had hired Panesar’s services prior to the 2017 tour to India to work with their spinners. The results were quite positive with Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon having productive outings in the four-match series.
What makes Asian-origin players turn to spin then when they play for other nations? Sri Lankan spin great Muttiah Muralitharan, who has worked as a consultant with both England and Australian spinners, reckons, they are most natural when it comes to wrist positions and possessing the skills to impart revolutions on the ball. “Most of their heroes growing up would be spinners, so they end up following them. They would have also heard stories about the great spinners from their land from their fathers who immigrated to other countries for a better life,” Murali had told TOI.
Tahir’s though is a completely different case. He can be safely touted as cricket’s quintessential journeyman. He was born and brought up in Lahore in Pakistan and during an Under-19 tour of South Africa, he lost his heart to Sumayya Dildar, whom he married in 2006 and became a South African citizen. He finally played for his adopted country in 2011. He became one of the key figures for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
Keshav Maharaj’s left-arm spin has fetched him 129 scalps in 36 matches. He even captained South Africa in the white-ball series in Sri Lanka after regular skipper Temba Bavuma got injured. His forefathers hailed from Sultanpur in UP and when former India wicket-keeper Kiran More, who was friends with Maharaj’s father Athmananad, a wicket-keeper for Natal, saw a young Keshav as a three-year-old during India’s 1992 tour of South Africa, he predicted that he will go on to play for South Africa.
Tabraiz Shamsi, South Africa’s chinaman bowler, ranked No.1 in T20Is, almost gave up cricket in 2012 to study marketing, but life changed after CPL 2015 where he was a revelation for St Kitts. He was an aspiring magician, but cricket wooed him eventually.
Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid are children of cricket-crazy immigrant parents living in the UK and practice the art of off-spin and leg-spin respectively. Both have had good results and bad and the bad ones have quickly got the critics to voice their disapproval about their presence and utility to the side.
It’s something that irritates Moeen’s father, Munir no end. The 66-year old runs a cricket academy in Birmingham and worked two jobs as a psychiatric nurse and a taxi driver to provide for his three sons and a daughter and to fund his sons’ cricket training expenses.