Mushtaq’s legacy goes on at Sussex

Paul Radley

• Last Updated: August 28. 2008 8:45PM UAE / August 28. 2008 4:45PM GMT

Mushtaq Ahmed in action for Sussex at Hove this year in one of his last games before retiring. John Sibley / Action Images

When Mushtaq Ahmed, the Pakistan spin-bowler, retired from playing this week, it meant a little-known – and highly-comical – ritual was finally ceased.

Abject, laughable, derisory. These are not the normal adjectives that applied to describe the ball-skills of the master leg-spinner.

In a golden age of spin bowling, when Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble rewrote international cricket’s wickets-records, Mushtaq always remained the most perplexing to read. His control over the cricket ball was total.

However, give him a football to play with, and he was rather less than indomitable. When Sussex had three Pakistani overseas players in their ranks – Mushtaq, Rana Naved-al-Hasan, and Yasir Arafat – their warm-ups used to involve a game named ‘Asian Keepy-Uppy’.

The aim was to see which of the trio, none of whom seemed to have committed much time to practising the game in Pakistan, could keep the football up the longest.

Yasir was the best, with a top-count of 12, while Mushtaq – all shins – was woeful, much to the mirth of his teammates.

“The keepy-uppy has become a cult thing,” revealed his county captain, Chris Adams. “He [Mushtaq] loves keep-uppy.

“He says every year he is going to go away and buy himself a football and practise with his son. But he never gets any better.”

Training Mushtaq in the English obsession of football was the least the Sussex players could do for a teammate who had given them so much. His 102 wickets in the 2006 season provided the bedrock of their second County Championship win – the second in the four years since he joined the club.

In the celebrations that followed that title win, Mushtaq was forced to shelter underneath his woolly jumper as his colleagues ecstatically sprayed champagne around the dressing room.

Brighton, where Sussex play their home games, has a relatively small Muslim community, but the players were not ignorant of his vow of abstinence from alcohol.

“I love it when you guys ask me questions about it,” he told his teammate Robin Martin-Jenkins while the party raged – the “it” being Islam.

“Why do you pray five times a day? Why do you read the Koran? In this way we can share information about our faiths. I think it’s great that 90 per cent of the Sussex dressing room now knows what proper Islam is all about. It can only help in the longer term.”

Adams is confident Mushtaq, 38, will not be lost to the game for very long. He was born in Sahiwal in Punjab, has already served on the coaching staff of the Pakistan national team, as the late Bob Woolmer’s assistant.

With Peter Moores, the head coach who first took Mushtaq to Sussex, now in charge of England, Adams says it would not be out of the question for him to assist the Kevin Pietersen revolution.

“He’ll be a coach, or an ambassador for the game in some shape or form, whether it is in Pakistan or in England,” added Adams. “He is very well respected in England, and I see no reason why he shouldn’t fulfill a coaching role or an ambassadorial role within English cricket. If the right job comes along and he fits the bill – why not?”

Mushtaq, who made his debut for Pakistan in Sharjah 19 years ago, delivered three County Championship titles in his five seasons with Sussex, a county who had hitherto never won the title in 123 of trying.

Adams adds: “In the history of the game, in terms of the story of Sussex never winning the championship, then suddenly him coming along, getting 100 wickets, and us winning the championship for the first time, he is probably the most valuable overseas player of all time, and the one who has had the most impact.

“He’s got 470 wickets in just five seasons. That is remarkable: a lot of bowlers don’t get that many wickets in their whole careers.

“He has had such an amazing impact on the field, and more importantly off it. He is a real gent, he is great fun, really mischievous. I think that is important: if you are going to play the game for a long time you need something about you in terms of fun and enjoyment.

“He came into every day’s cricket genuinely looking forward to it. A lot of players his age would have been thinking, ‘My knees hurt, my body hurts, I’ll just try and get through today’s play’.”

pradley@thenational.ae