SWABI:
Fawad Ahmed's cricketing journey began in a graveyard in his village in
northwest Pakistan but could yet culminate in an Ashes Test for
Australia at the home of cricket, Lord's.
Friends
and former team-mates of the 31-year-old, who fled to Australia in 2010
claiming he was targeted by extremists and now wants to play for his
adopted land against England, said his talent was obvious at an early
age but he never got the chance to shine in Pakistan.
Syed
Qamar, 35, who captained him in the northwestern town of Swabi, told
AFP that even as a young man he was a match-winner, baffling batsmen
with the leg-spinner's full repertoire of deliveries.
"He
was a highly talented bowler, his main advantage was his height and he
could deliver leg-break, flipper, googly with ease," he said.
Ahmed
played a handful of first-class matches in Pakistan, taking a wicket in
his debut match for Abbottabad in 2005, but Qamar said he became
frustrated as there was little chance for him to break into the national
side from Swabi.
Ahmed's
relatives refused to discuss him or the threats against him, but family
friend Mohammad Asghar insisted they were genuine, though there is no
record of militants threatening cricketers in Pakistan or of attacks on
domestic matches.
Indeed,
some of Pakistan's best players have hailed from the restive northwest -
former one-day captain Shahid Afridi is from the lawless tribal
district of Khyber and fast bowler Umar Gul is from Peshawar.
Ahmed's former team-mate Maqsood Ali, 38, said he always played with a steely determination.
"Unlike
most bowlers who shout and show excitement on taking a wicket, Fawad
would behave very normally and remain quiet," he told AFP.
"Cricket
was his passion. When he was not selected for the national team, he
told me 'I will play international cricket at any cost'."
Ahmed
was granted a permanent Australian visa in November and quickly made a
name for himself bowling for the Melbourne Renegades in the Twenty20 Big
Bash League.
He
will be eligible to play for Australia once granted citizenship, and
the Cricinfo website reported that Cricket Australia is lobbying
authorities to fast-track his application to make him available for the
start of the Ashes in England in July.
If
successful he could find himself pulling on the Baggy Green to
represent his adopted land on the hallowed turf of Lord's - a far cry
from his earliest matches in his home village Marghuz, eight kilometres
(five miles) from Swabi.
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