Great to see Mushtaq do some good work for the local community. I hope the PCB realizes and respects this and taps the talents of all these stars of the 90s like other boards are beginning to.
**Learning from Mushy **
*As the north wind whips across the turf at Crawley Eagles cricket club on a frigid afternoon in May, Mushtaq Ahmed is patiently explaining the four variations in a leg-spinner’s basic weaponry. *
For about 20 years as a very amateur slow bowler, forced to turn to batting to get into school teams and sometimes even my village side, I had only ever mastered the basic leg-break.
Actually, mastered is not the right word at all, especially when a truly masterful Pakistani leggie is nonchalantly sending down flippers, top-spinners and wrong 'uns with no discernible change in his action.
It had been a long, long time since, as a nervous schoolboy, I was sent by my parents to the revered Alf Gover cricket school in south London.
There, although the old man was still overseeing net sessions, a team of young Australian pros would show prep-school boys in immaculate whites how to bowl fast and play the hook shot. Leg-spin was immediately frowned upon.
For Mushtaq, who is offering his advice at a spin clinic organised by Sussex and open to all-comers, young leg-spinners have always had to battle adversity before coming good.
He says: “When I was young I used to go for millions of runs and that’s what I want to tell the kids here. They should just go out there and try to spin the ball more and more and not worry about the runs.”
He has no qualms talking the children, some of whom are knee-high to a grasshopper, through the basic leg-spin grip, and the different positions of the wrist on release which allow the ball to turn in different directions.
But he is also an intriguing father-figure, dishing out moral advice in equal measure.
Before the 30-odd youngsters are let loose on the wicket, they hear some Mushtaq wisdom from the warmth of the pavilion.
“Always respect your parents and your elders and when you practise don’t speak to anybody else - just concentrate on spinning the ball. It’s very vital.”
Fascinatingly, he also reveals why he chose to be a spinner.
“When I was a little kid there were plenty of people who could do magic and the leg-spinner can also do magic because if they work hard enough they can scare batsmen.”
Out on the square, one or two really impress the local scouts who sport tracksuits sponsored by Papa John’s Pizza.
Mohammad Ali, 13, is already well known to them.
Hurrying to the crease in a whirl of arms and legs, he zips the ball through the air at quite a pace for a slow bowler, spinning the ball sharply.
Like so many in the group, he was coached by his Pakistani-born father as soon as he could walk, and is now in trials for Sussex’s junior teams.
Harking back to one of Mushtaq’s points, he reveals gravely that being hit for boundaries by opposing batsmen worries his captain because “he wants results”.
But he adds: “It depends who the captain is. I’m trying to be captain now.”
For my part, although Mushtaq has finally, after all these years, explained to me how to bowl the googly, the results are not exactly startling.
And despite Mushtaq’s encouragement, I probably won’t be using it on Sunday in Turville Park’s match away to Nettlebed.