Talent drain: Aussies use Pakistani asylum-seeker to boost spin

Fawad Ahmed left his home to come to Australia on a short-stay visa to play cricket in 2010.

SYDNEY:

In a classic case of talent drain, a Pakistani asylum-seeker will be helping Australian batsmen stave off a South African bowling attack.

Fawad Ahmed, who left his home in the border region near Afghanistan to come to Australia on a short-stay visa to play cricket in 2010, is awaiting news on whether his claim for asylum has been accepted.

In the meantime, he will be used by the Australian team for batting practice during the South Africa series because of the similarities in his bowling to the South Africa’s leg-spinner Imran Tahir.

“I’m really excited and I think I can bowl well. It’s good for them and it’s good for me, that they have asked me to go there,” Ahmed told theSydney Morning Herald.

Ahmed is familiar with naturalised South African Tahir, having played against him when they were both in Pakistan’s domestic cricket.

“We are the same height, with a high arm action, and we can both bowl a good wrong ‘un,” he said.

“His leg spin is bouncy, and I am like him, so it’s good for the Australian batsmen to practise on my bowling.”

Ahmed will be in Brisbane as a net bowler ahead of the Test starting on November 9.

But Australian opener Ed Cowan, who pushed for Ahmed to be a net bowler, said it made sense to practise against him ahead of the contest against the world’s number one Test side.

Ahmed has previously said he was targeted by extremists in Pakistan because of his involvement in cricket, even receiving death threats because of the perception that the sport promotes Western values.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2012.