Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Saqlain Mushtaq eligible to play for England?

Monty Panesar could never have expected a competition from Saqlain Mushtaq. But now, he has a thing to worry about. Saqlain Mushtaq has acquired a British passport and now is eligible and available to play for England.

The inventor of the off spinner's "doosra", Saqlain is one of the finest off spinners ever in the world. He managed to trouble the best of the batsmen when he played. He got out of the Pakistani team for an injury and PCB, for some very strange reason, never gave him a fair chance to come back. The last time he played for Pakistan, he didnt look like himself. He last played an ODI for Pakistan in 2003 and a test in 2004. He married a British born girl in 1998 and moved to London in 2004.

When asked, Saqlain said "I really don’t know, I haven’t thought about it because I have been out of cricket for the last three years. If they ask then I’ll think about it and discuss it with my family and with my friends as well."

Saqlain is now playing county for Sussex. He just gave an impressive performance against India in the practice game taking 4 wickets. His getting a British passport has brought in interesting possibilities. If he is interested and if the England team is interested, we might see Saqlain use his lethal weapons on Pakistan someday.

Reference: gulf-times

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