Best of SPIN 5: MCC chief exec Keith Bradshaw goes on the record
March 17, 2010 by Duncan Steer
Filed under Features, SPIN Gold
First published in SPIN magazine, February 2010 issue
When Keith Bradshaw was announced as the new secretary of the MCC in 2006, it caused a bit of a stir. Bradshaw, after all, was Australian and, at 42, half a generation younger than most of his predecessors. What was he doing as the public face of one of England’s most conservative institutions? Now we know: Bradshaw is on his way to turning the MCC – previously a byword for staunch tradition – into a forward-thinking body, turning out maverick proposals – pink balls, floodlight Tests, franchise T20 events – on a regular and unprecedented basis.
Formally, cricket’s power has moved East, away from the private members club in St Johns Wood. The ICC, once administered by MCC, is now based in Dubai. But the MCC has looked to re-assert its position at cricket’s top table since Bradshaw took over. Not just in the world game, but within England. Bradshaw’s blueprint for a nine-team franchise-based English Twenty20 tournament was voted down by county chairmen in 2008, as English cricket explored its post-IPL options.
But the independent thinking just kept coming: at the end of 2009, the MCC was in the papers for funding Middlesex’s T20 signing of Adam Gilchrist and Sachin Tendulkar; there were reports, unconfirmed, that MCC’s views on TV rights at the ‘Crown Jewels’ enquiry had opposed the ECB’s; then there was the talk of playing the traditional MCC-v-champion county curtain-raiser under floodlights in Dubai (true) and reports that Bradshaw was considering renaming Lord’s after a sponsor (absolutely not, he says – though there will be residential blocks at the Nursery End and an underground Academy).
Meanwhile, the MCC’s all-star, self-funded World Cricket Committee was urging the ICC to consider a formal World Test Championship in a bid to re-invigorate the five-day game.
Things are changing in St John’s Wood. But many of the details an motivations have, until now, been misreported. In a full and wide-ranging interview, Keith Bradshaw helped clear up exactly where the MCC – and more importantly, cricket as a whole, is heading in the new decade.
SPIN: If we’d interviewed the secretary of the MCC five years ago, we’d have talked about the past. Today, we’re talking about the future. Is that change down to you personally or to changes in MCC as a whole?
Keith Bradshaw: I think it’s a combination.I think history and tradition is very important and we need to preserve that. It’s one of our strengths. So it’s not about change for change’s sake. I think we can change our image without changing our values. The game is changing and I think as a club we need to embrace that change and in some instances lead it – but at the same time respect our history and traditions.
I think we are probably the only organisation in the world of cricket that is free from conflict… we’re almost the conscience of the game and that’s a really important role.
Was all this innovation a part of your brief when you took over as CEO?
When I did my interview they asked me to do a presentation on my objectives for the first 12 months – I said I didn’t have any, that I wanted to go in and listen and understand and see what issues the MCC was facing and then decide in which direction we should head.
I felt the MCC’s image – in terms of it being crusty or stuffy – I felt it was unfair to a degree. It was probably an impression I had had too, but when I arrived I found that the members were passionate about their cricket, there were a lot of people who were very forward-thinking and could see that the club had to keep pace with the times. For me, it was important to be very open and transparent. There were things we needed to change…. I think Lord’s as a destination, as the home of cricket, is here for everybody.
You compare MCC to the brand of the All England Club and Wimbledon. Is there no conflict between this kind of talk and the members with more traditional views?
I think they can work together. The brand isn’t just about the logo it’s about the way we do things and the way people are treated when they come to the ground.
You may argue that cricketing bodies at the moment are very dependent on broadcasting revenue – part of my challenge is to make sure we diversify. I’m not looking to plaster an MCC logo on every product in the high street… It needs to be appropriate. It’s the same with our sponsors. It’s about the right partners and the right merchandise. One of the concepts we’re looking at is our cricket academies. We’re rebranding the Lord’s indoor school next year as a cricket academy and we think there’s the potential to take MCC cricket academies around the world.
Let’s talk about hosting the Durham-MCC game in Abu Dhabi this season. What’s the reason behind that – is it purely financial?
No, it’s not financial. We received notification of the date of the champion county game from the ECB – 3 April – and we happened to be in Abu Dhabi at the time. We said, ‘Gee, that’s early’ and last year we lost a lot of play to rain anyway. And we’d just finished our World Cricket Committee meeting where we’d been discussing pink balls and day-night Tests. We’re not saying every Test should be day-night but we were saying that Test cricket needs to be invigorated – not so much in London or in England but elsewhere – and how could we do that? And one of the ideas was day-night Test cricket. And for that you need to get a ball that works – and we think the pink ball is worthy of a trial.
We tried to get a trial at the end of last season but we couldn’t get a county match to stage one so here was an opportunity to have a four-day match with a pink ball in harsher conditions than early season at Lord’s – on a harder pitch, the ball will scuff more. So we thought let’s do it under lights as well. We’re trying to make a contribution to the world game and until this trial happens it won’t progresss. So we thought that for the greater good, for this year, we should go ahead with the trial.
We don’t see it as long-term. We will play more matches in Abu Dhabi but in terms of the traditional season opener, this – Lord’s – is where it should be. This is a one-off for the good of the game. There may not be the need for another trial in any case….
But you do have a long-term arrangement with Abu Dhabi…
We’ve signed a partnership with them.
So it could be a site for one of your academies?
Correct – and we’ll also send our young cricketers out there for pre-season and we have a reciprocal arrangement for members of both clubs and we have usage of their grounds. So it’s mutually beneficial…
It’s been reported that the MCC’s submission to the government’s ‘Crown Jewels’ sport-on-TV committee opposed the ECB line. Is that right?
I don’t think it was significantly different to be honest, though I know it’s been reported that way. We made a few points – we talked about the number of packages that go out to tender from the ECB: was that the right set of packages? Could some modifications be made? I think there was a feeling from our members that they would like to see some Test cricket on terrestrial television. We talked about that but the over-arching message is that it’s not terrestrial at any cost. I think that’s been lost in some of the coverage.
So if you were asked, ‘Should the Lord’s Ashes Test be shown live and in full on terrestrial television’… what would you say?
The response would be… it’s not that simple. You’d have to say, ‘What are the implications for the game?’
But the MCC would be keener to have cricket on terrestrial TV than the ECB?
I think the honest answer to that is that we would be keen to have cricket on terrestrial television if it could be shown that it wasn’t to the detriment of the game in England.
This all plays into the wider issue that Lord’s is not guaranteed a Test match every year from the ECB…
When I first arrived I was staggered to hear that: Lord’s is an icon, it’s a national treasure, why would you not have two Tests here? It seemed preposterous to me that you would shift a Test to another ground. It would be like moving Wimbledon to Eastbourne.
So you are competing on a level playing field with the Rose Bowl and Cardiff and all the newer international venues?
Yes, we all bid in a competitive closed tender situation and tenders are allocated based on the quality of the submissions the grounds make and there’s a scorecard which takes into account 1) how much you are prepared to bid, but also hospitality, geography – so being close to the Oval means that geographic spread counts against us all the time….
The Oval has a long-term agreement – it’s guaranteed Tests every year. That must be grieving for Lord’s…
Well, we see a long -term staging agreement of our own as vitally important for us – for the development of the ground.
You’re hosting one of the Pakistan-Australia Tests this summer – you were, personally, a prime mover for neutral venue Tests even before they became ‘essential’, weren’t you?
I always said whatever we can do to promote Test cricket as a whole we should be doing and neutral Tests was one of those things. We bid fairly aggressively to get this year’s Test. We saw it as a good thing to assist Pakistan cricket, because Pakistan are not able to play at home at the moment. Commercially, it might not be a great success, given that it starts on a Tuesday and other factors count against it, but we saw it as more important to do whatever we could to have it next year – so we have three Tests here this year.
Will Pakistan be playing here again after this summer?
Yes, to me it seems logical – although there’s been no talks – but if India are playing here in 2011 and Pakistan are looking to play neutral Tests, I would hope there’d be an India-Pakistan Test here next year.
How close have you come to hosting other big neutral-venue games before?
We hosted the Rajasthan Royals [British Asian Trust] game here last summer. It wasn’t about profitability. We made a contribution, we managed to get 22,000 people into the ground with just three weeks for marketing and that proved to us that there is a future for those sort of matches. It was a Monday evening, we bought some Bollywood entertainment in, trying to make it an event. And next summer, we have four Thursday-night Twenty20s here and we want to make that the thing to do on a Thursday night – come to Lords and watch Twenty20 cricket.
It’s about creating an experience that people want. So for Test cricket, we’re not looking to have horns and fancy dress or music. If you want that you can go somewhere else; that’s almost a unique selling point for us. But Twenty20 is a completely separate beast – we want to create the ultimate experience for people to come and watch it. It’s not about sitting down and eating your sandwiches. It’s poles-apart experiences – but we feel we need to embrace both and respect both.
How close has Lord’s come to hosting an actual IPL game?
We’ve had a lot of interest from IPL teams. We’re certainly keen to do it… and I think it’s inevitable that we’ll see IPL matches here in the future. It’s a case of wanting to respect the ECB and their role. It’s a case of working together to bring the IPL here without damaging the local product. But it’s going to happen, no matter what.
Eighteen months ago, myself and [Surrey chairman] David Stewart put forward our proposal to the ECB for a franchise-based Twenty20 competition – one of the arguments for that was that it would compete financially and in terms of attracting the world’s elite players on a par with the IPL.
I have great admiration for the IPL. But you do need competition in any environment and we thought that a nine-team franchise competition would pay the players the same sort of money as the IPL and create a lot of interest here. So, for me, the IPL now has no competition and we’re going to see it continue to grow…
Your new alliance with Middlesex – signing Adam Gilchrist and possibly Sachin Tendulkar for the T20 – seems almost unilaterally trying to go down that franchise-style route…
Well, we’re moving closer to it. We have a great relationship with Middlesex and I guess we’ve just become closer and closer over the years. So, for 2010, we sat down and said Middlesex are playing these games at Lord’s – how can we fill the ground? We said okay – we need to have the best players in the world playing.
Is it a partnership in kind, is money changing hands, or can’t you say?
I’m happy to say – we have a profit-sharing arrangement whereby Middlesex get the biggest share. But I guess when we’re talking about paying costs for Tendulkar and Gilchrist, that comes out of a pot….
So you’re underwriting the project…
Yes, effectively that’s how it works.
Is that as far as the deal goes?
Erm… I think there’s the potential to do more with Middlesex though at the moment there’s no plans to take it further.
Does English cricket need 18 counties?
The thing that was very disappointing to David and I was that our Twenty20 nine-team document was leaked to the press. It was an internal discussion document. For instance, the nine teams would each see two counties getting equity and profit share. The way that was then portrayed in the press spooked a lot of counties who felt it would mean they went out of business. The message didn’t get through.
The reality is that the standard of an 18-team competition isn’t going to be as great as if you have a reduced number playing. Then again,the flip side is the history and the tradition – its not all about finances. I’m not someone that’s advocating fewer counties – let’s put it that way.
But if you were in charge of T20 in England…
I would certainly promote a nine-team franchise competition because I thought that was the way to go and it probably still is. But I’m a big believer of ‘You are where you are.’ Which is why we’re trying to get Gilchrist and Tendulkar. And I hear now that Warney may be coming to a county which – if it’s true – is terrific because it’s rasing the bar.
With the ICC moving to Dubai in 2005, was there a feeling that MCC was becoming a secondary organisation? You’ve certainly increased your ‘profile’ again in the last year or so…
I’m pleased to hear that because I think it’s important we do have a profile. We won’t always be popular for the things we say but the game is moving so quickly I think we have a contribution to make. As an independent voice and as a conscience, we need to make sure we are heard.
And we are the guardians of the laws of the game – that’s a very understated role. For us it’s about balancing the contest between bat and ball: if bats go too far does it change the nature of the game?
Like golf’s graphite shafts and titanium heads – if technology reduces the gap between the elite player and the club player, is that good for the game? In a lot of instances, it’s not.
The MCC World Cricket Committee – is that just the MCC putting itself forward? It’s not formally commissioned by ICC…
It was the brainchild of [former England captain and BBC commentator] Tony Lewis. He felt that world cricket could do with a body of the good and the great. I sit in the meetings and hear those guys talk – Steve Waugh , Barry Richards, Mike Brearley, Geoffrey Boycott, Shaun Pollock… They are there to advise us. It’s funded by us entirely; they make recommendations to us, give us a direction on where they think research should be done – pink balls are high on the list.
We were looking to see what we could
do to promote Test cricket. And the idea
of a World Test Championship came out
of that – there was a phenomenal response in the research on that. People said it
would definitely make a difference to their inerest in Test cricket.
But we just provide research and hopefully the ICC take it into consideration.
But is Test cricket commercially viable beyond the top four or five teams?
Well, that’s the challenge. I think we’re seeing different audiences. Twenty20 has brought a new audience to the game – women, children. People who didn’t realise cricket was so much fun. Our challenge then is to get that group of people interested in Test cricket. I think there’s things we can do around Tests in terms of the experience they have when they’re in the ground.
When you tell the ECB you’re putting down 100s of millions to improve Lord’s, it must be disappointing that they don’t bite your hand off for a long-term staging agreement?
It is a process that’s taking probably longer than I expected. The reality is that a lot of the developments here have been paid for by MCC – the magnificent draining system, the floodlights. We don’t get any grant money for those things – which other grounds do get. Am I disappointed? Well, I’ll be very disappointed if they don’t agree to a long-term staging agreement. We’ve had discussions over the last few months and so far they’ve been positive, so we’re hopeful.
World cricket used to be run from this office; now it’s run from Lalit Modi’s office. How do you read that situation?
Well, once again, we are where we are. It’s important to have good relationships. We have an extremely good relationship with India and India has a great passion for and respect for Lord’s. Our relationships since I’ve been here have been nothing less than fruitful, energising and exciting – so it’s a case of accepting the reality and moving with it.
Shahid Afridi: the story of my life
June 12, 2009 by Duncan Steer
Filed under Featured Content, Features, Star interviews
First published in SPIN, September 2006
No-one in world cricket plays quite like Shahid Afridi. Not Flintoff, not Pietersen, not Jayasuriya, not even Gilchrist. His strike-rate is higher than any batsman in Test cricket history; his slightly pigeon-toed walk to the wicket a guarantee of fireworks. All the pundits say it and it’s true: Boom Boom Afridi only knows how to play one way. The first time he batted in international cricket, aged 16, he hit a century off 37 balls, a world record that still stands. The decade since that debut is littered with similar feats.
The Pakistan management haven’t always known what to do with their maverick entertainer over the years. Thought to be uncoachable, Afridi plays his natural game, regardless of match situation or designated role and it took well over two years for the ODI prodigy to be entrusted with a Test call. Even when he was, appearances were sporadic, despite his ODI successes and the love of the Pakistan public. When new coach Bob Woolmer recalled him to the team in January 2005, he had not played a Test for two and a half years.
Woolmer, recognising Afridi’s chaotic potential to turn even a Test in half an hour’s brutal hitting, is happy to back Afridi as the team’s wild card. His faith has been repaid: it was Afridi’s 58 off 34 balls on the fourth day – the second fastest 50 in Test history – that helped turn the last game of the India series at Bangalore in 2005: the next day, he ripped out the India middle-order (Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman) to clinch the win and a series draw. Afridi followed that up with 92 off 85 balls against England at Faisalabad in the winter and two consecutive tons against India in January. The ton in Faisalabad – 156 off 128 balls – included 116 runs in boundaries.
In April, having finally established himself as a truested first-choice in both forms of the game, Afridi announced his retirement from Tests, saying he wanted to concentrade on the World Cup. Two weeks later, he changed his mind.
Born in the Khyber Agency – the region of Pakistan nearest Afghanistan – Afridi grew up, and learnt his cricket in, Karachi, though his links with the northern areas remain strong. Still only 26, Afridi’s profile internationally remains low, despite his duel status as Pakistani icon and the world’s quickest-ever batter. Full-length interviews are a rarity for him, despite the fact that he speaks good English and has an extraordinary tale to tell. Afridi broke his silence to speak to SPIN in a revealing interview that covered everything from his philosophy of batting, to the history of bust-ups in the Pakistan dressing-room to – oh yes – his love of guns…
How do you prepare for an innings? What are you thinking about when you walk out to bat?
Before I go out to bat, I’m thinking I’ll play two, three, four overs, just ball to ball, and then I’ll start trying to hit boundaries. But sometimes, that doesn’t happen. I get the right ball early on and I go for it. If it’s in my target range, automatically I go for it. I sometimes laugh at myself… maybe I could say I’m not mentally very strong, not disciplined… [laughs]
Have you had captains and coaches shout at you over getting
out irresponsibly?
In the old days, two or three years ago. When I came off, and I was saying bad things to myself about how I’d got out and I was trying to take my pads off and the coach is standing over me going “What the f**k you doing, what kind of shot was that?”
Over the years, we’d always hear that the Pakistan dressing-room was ‘difficult’…
Yeah, it’s always been difficult. A few of the selectors didn’t like me. The main thing in Pakistan is liking and disliking, rather than anything to do with form or talent. After the 2003 World Cup I was out of the squad so I went to South Africa and played domestic cricket there, performed very well and when Bob Woolmer came to Pakistan, he said: “Where’s Afridi – whenever we played against Pakistan, he was the guy we needed to work out.” So Bob told the selectors he needed me. Bob talked to me – I told him the only thing I need is confidence. So he gave me confidence and after that, my performances have been getting better and better.
The 2003 World Cup seemed to be a special low-point in Pakistan’s recent cricket history. What happened there?
Before the tournament, there were four or five guys who said to the chairman that they didn’t want Waqar Younis as captain. So if the senior guys don’t want the captain, what can you expect? I didn’t see any unity in the team. Right from 1996 when I came into the team, the cricket board has changed a lot of times, the captaincy has changed a lot: I’ve played under eight or nine captains; a few of the captains didn’t like me. Because of all the ins and outs, all the liking and disliking, they made the atmosphere shit. But after that, Inzamam and Bob Woolmer have come in and really worked hard with the guys. Now the team combination is very good and Bob and the captain keep the team very united. In the past we missed that. Now, Inzamam is the senior most-guy and we have a lot of juniors. But in the past, everyone was senior: Wasim, Waqar, Moin, Ijaz, Rashid Latif. And it cant work if there’s only big names in the team. So now the team is very united. They’re listening to what the captain says and that makes a big difference.
You’re senior now, too…
Yeah, after Inzamam, I’m the senior-most player, with Mohammad Yousuf. The captain gives us the confidence that we are the four or five guys who he relies on.
Is it fair to say that you didn’t achieve your potential in the early part of your career the way you are doing now?
The diference is that at the start if I didn’t perform in one or two games, then I’d be dropped. So I didn’t get confidence from that. But now I’m playing cricket full of energy and focus. My last two years’ performances are much better than before and I don’t want to go back. The captain and coach have really given me a lot of confidence. They’ve said, “Don’t worry too much if you’re out; dont think too much about it; just go and play your game”. And that’s what our players want. Confidence from the captain and coach.
Are you playing differently now – more straight and less across the line?
No, I’m still playing my own game; across AND straight. But now I know that if I don’t perform, they’ll keep giving me a chance again and again… If you see Pietersen, Sehwag, Jayasuiya… they’re playing their own way. It doesn’t matter if it’s one-days or Tests. And this is the modern way. You don’t play 100 balls and score 40 or 50 runs. The Bradman time is gone. [laughs]
Have you always been an attacking player?
I come from the Northern areas, the Khyber Agency. I’m Pathan: all the Pathans are very aggressive. They’re like the Irish. [laughs] Very aggressive people. It’s in our blood. I like to play positive cricket. I like to be aggressive. It’s what cricket’s all about, you know? I don’t care if I get out. I try and play a positive game.
Can you tell us some more about being a Pathan, about what it means to come from a Pathan background?
My tribe is from the Northern areas. There’s no law there, no governmental law, it’s our own rules. When British books mention our tribe, they say, “Never say anything to these people!” [laughs] It’s very close to Afghanistan. We go back to our village every year. We have a very big family. Six brothers and five sisters – all the brothers live together.
How did you start playing cricket?
In my family, no-one likes sport. In the tribe, in the Khyber agency, no-one’s interested in cricket. They belong to the army or do business. One of my uncles is in the army: he told my elder brother, Tariq, to play cricket because he had talent. He played a lot of first-class cricket but had to give up because of an elbow injury. I was very keen to play cricket; I didn’t like studying. We lived in the same lane in Karachi as [’80s Pakistan batter] Haroon Rashid, so the whole street loved cricket and there were a lot of cricketers there. We played a lot of cricket in the street and I was the youngest guy to play club cricket there – I was 12 or 13 – and the standard was very good. I was the youngest in all the clubs. And the first time Haroon Rashid saw me he said, “You’re a very talented guy, just keep playing cricket”. my father was very strict. He didn’t like cricket. He said: “You’re just spending the whole day standing around in the sun…”
What did he think you should be doing instead?
If I hadn’t been a cricketer I would have loved to join the army. I like a tough life, you know.
Can you shoot a gun?
Yeah. It’s a normal thing for me.
What, for hunting?
No, if I go to Peshawar, I go to a place near the Afghanistan border for firing. I’m using M16s on the shooting range…
Serious weapons…
Yeah – so? We’re used to it – in my village 12, 13-year-old guys are always walking about with guns.
It’s a protection thing? A respect thing?
Yeah – that’s the culture over there.
If it’s lawless in the northern areas, who’s in charge?
Well, my father, my grandfather, they’re all leaders there, they rule the city there. They make decisions. People come to them . If anyone does something bad, all the elders sit together and decide what to do about it.
Wasn’t there a riot when you played your first big game in Peshawar?
The Afridis are a very big tribe in the northern areas and I was the first Afridi to play first-class cricket. So all the people came to see me and I got out first ball – and all the crowds were saying, “No, that’s strike 1, give him one more chance” and all this. A lot of them didn’t understand cricket, they were just there for the Afridi name. A lot of people were there. About 45,000. It was jam-packed.
Do you feel you’re representing your people as well as Pakistan?
Yeah, I’m representing the tribe as well. Sometimes, it’s very difficult. A lot of people call me from the northern areas, saying, ‘You are the only Pathan guy, we want to see you…’ They give me a lot of advice. Especially if we’re playing in Pakistan. Before I get to the ground, I think I’m going to be out there batting for three or four hours. I get to the ground and the crowd is all making all that noise – “Come on: six six six” – and everything I thought before just disappears!
Are there any bowlers you can’t cart around the park?
With the new ball, McGrath is the best; Harmison is very good too. They are the bowlers you can’t hit easily – you’re forced to survive. I used to open when we went to Australia but last time I said I wanted to go in at No 6. And I faced Mcgrath and Lee and gave them sixes and fours, a lot of boundaries. But in Australia and England you can’t take a chance against the new ball – it isn’t easy.
Who do you most like scoring runs off?
I like Muralitaharan. He’s a very good bowler, a great bowler but I like to hit him. Shane Warne: I love to hit him. Brett Lee. Mcgrath – but Murali and Shane Warne are my favourites.
Can you read them?
[dismissively] Yeah, yeah.
You find them easy?
Not easy. You can’t take chances on every ball. One or two sixes in an over is enough…
What’s the biggest six you’ve ever hit?
I’ve hit a lot of big sixes – but I hit one against Brett Lee that I can’t forget. I was on the front foot and he was bowling 145-148 in Sydney: he had the fielder back at long-off and the ball just flew flat over the ground and over the boundary for six. It just happened automatically. Naturally. After that six, Hayden came to me and said, “I want your bat”.
You’ve got a very individual style of leg-spin bowling. where does that come from?
When I started playing in the streets I was a fast bowler: Imran Khan was the legend at the time and I saw him and copied him. But someone said I was throwing, so I started to copy Abdul Qadir instead… I wasnt a bad spinner at the time. I batted No 9 or No 10.
Do you feel you’re not taken as seriously as a bowler as you might be?
Pakistan didn’t play me in a Test until I’d played 50 or 60 ODIS – and then I got five wickets on my Test debut. If they’d given me a chance in Tests when I started my one-days, it might have been different. But they just put the stamp on me that i was just a one-day player. [stamps table incredibly hard]
You got those three vital wickets against India last year: Tendulkar, Ganguly…
Yeah, and Laxman. That was a crucial performance for me. Some very big wickets for me. The wicket gave me a lot of support, so I enjoyed bowling there. I enjoyed bowling in Australia [in 2004/05] too. Batting is my plus point; but I really want to focus on my bowling.
I enjoy my bowling.
You retired for a full fortnight back this April. What was that about?
When the India tour finished, I said I’m not playing anymore: you guys are playing too much cricket, you can’t expect me to perform in both times of cricket. It’s not like a sport now, it’s like a business. So I wanted a rest. And some time to spend with my kids. This is the right age to spend time with your kids – when they get older, they just keep themselves in their rooms!
But then you changed your mind…
I didn’t ask any of my friends about it. I was just sick of playing. I just said I wanted to focus on one-day games until the World Cup: my Test performances had become very good, but my one-dayers weren’t so good, batting-wise: the bowling was okay. But after I said I was retiring, the Board president called me and said they needed me. A lot of people were worried, everyone was calling me. And I was like,”Oh God, what have I done?
Can you tell us something about the way the team apparently takes Islam more seriously now?
I’d love to be come a very good Muslim. I’m trying. But I want to learn my religion and then I will talk to others. I want to become a good Muslim. After my cricket career, it’s my wish to go into the way of Allah and be a good Muslim.
What does that involve? Reading the Qoran every day?
Yeah, we’re reading the Qoran and sitting with religious people and we’re getting a lot of good things with them.
Do you have a religious advisor with the squad?
No: I know things, Inzamam knows things, Mohammad Yousuf… we try to be good Muslims, because we believe that this life will finish but the next life never finishes – so we believe if you do good things here, you will be rewarded…
Why has the team got more religious in the last five or ten years?
It’s not five or ten years, it’s only the last two years. One of our religious leaders in Pakistan worked very hard on us, told us that there’s something apart from cricket. When this life ends, was it all about just hitting fours and sixes? They tried to put good things in our heads, to make us good people, to be all-round people. And that’s the type of situation we’re in now. God has changed our lives now. We’re not drinking or going with girls or clubbing. We’re trying to be good Muslims. So our life has become very simple, very good, very down to earth. If we perform or not, we are satisfied from the inside.
Do you see your younger self as a wilder person, then?
Yeah – with age, you learn more, have more experiences. As you grow older, you learn things about yourself and your life. Now we’re older, life is completely different.
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