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Many of you will have read this week’s Spin in which Andy Bull describes Bilal Shafayat’s skittery descent to the Birmingham Leagues. Shafayat was one of our ones to watch in 2006 and 2007.
Stories like Shafayat’s sometimes seem like tragedies, but that’s only really when the player in question has really lost it. Shafayat sounds like he’s had little more than a wobble and there are worse places to be than the Birmingham Leagues. Mohammad Yousuf’s spending half his summer there this year and he’s hardly a failure.
Shafayat’s also 26. He’s got bags of time to get it together. More importantly, it-togetherness can be attained anywhere, it doesn’t have to be in county cricket. Having got it together, he’ll need to pass through county cricket, but it seems like he’s aiming higher than that anyway, so what’s the difference?
In and out of a county side, he’d be stuck in limbo. In this position, he’s poised to launch an assault. A cricketing assault. On the England team. From Birmingham.
So is league cricket going to get more coverage here than the IPL?
I do hope so.
Bilal Shafayat and Mohammad Yousaf – would that pairing max out in the beard department!
Wasn’t he the bloke that won us the 1st test at Cardiff in 2009 by time wasting?
A proper cricketing legend!