A truck driver from Pakistan Abdul Haq who impressed the team manager Intikhab Alam and coach Waqar Younis with his bowling during their tour to UAE has grabbed the limelight at the training camp in Lahore. He showed up during the net practice session of the Pakistan team in Abu Dhabi and the team management saw that the bowler had a lot of potential. Intikhab Alam effectively invited him to join the National Cricket Academy to hone his bowling skills.
The little known fast bowler hails from the northern tribal areas of Waziristan and was forced to leave the country in order to make some money to feed his family back home.
"I had played some matches in domestic cricket grade-two but gave up hope and left for Abu Dhabi because I needed to earn money for myself and my family. The coaches have asked some departmental teams to look at me and sign me on. They have also told me to keep on practicing regularly," he said.
Sources within the PCB have not ruled out the possibility of the selection of this little known bowler however the Pakistan team are known to select unknown bowlers in the past as well. Players like Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Amir and many others have been picked up after being spotted by former cricketers in training camps.
Waqar Younis said that the 27 year old truck driver had a lot of potential to establish himself as a quality bowler. However he went on to say that his talent was very raw. For Abdul Haq being part of the Pakistan national cricket team would be a dream come true and he hopes to make it one day. Like many other Pakistani’s his heroes are none other than Imran Khan and Waqar Younis. He said that he grew up watching them play on television and bowling under the likes of coach Waqar Younis would be very beneficial for him.
The 27 year old represented Abu Dhabi Gymkhana in the local cricket league. He said that he had never played first class four day games however has played mostly 50 over matches in the local UAE division league.
“I am happy that I got the opportunity to bowl at Pakistan batsmen in the nets and was able to clean bowled Misbah, Imran Farhat and Adnan Akmal,” he told reporters after he was given an opportunity to bowl in the nets during the series against South Africa.
