Fawad Ahmed

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1990crow

1990crow

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Pakistani recently given Australian residency and played for the PM XI impressing. Took 3 for forty odd tonight against the Redbacks with good turn and control. At 33 years of age what is his future in Australian cricket? If you are the type of couch selector who picks the leg spinner over off spinner when two players are of equal ability, you would be hard pressed to say he doesn't have one. Has a first class career back home so has experience. Interested to see where this story goes.
 
Could end up playing a few T20s for Australia at some point, maybe even the ODI team, and may establish himself in the Vic side for a few years, but at his age, given he's a good but not exceptional talent, I seriously doubt he'll play Test cricket.

That said, his story is a fantastic one. Amid all the controversy surrounding sport at the current time, it's nice to see evidence of how positive sport can also be.
 
Not sure, I initially thought that he was being picked on publicity, but those figures tonight look pretty good in a relatively high scoring game.

Would be interesting to see his career follow another Victorian leggie who did not debut in state cricket until very late into his career, yet rose through the ranks very very quickly. Obviously history shows Bryce McGain had a shocker in his one and only international match, but it was a pretty remarkable effort to get there.
 

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Hellgood said:
Not sure, I initially thought that he was being picked on publicity, but those figures tonight look pretty good in a relatively high scoring game.

Would be interesting to see his career follow another Victorian leggie who did not debut in state cricket until very late into his career, yet rose through the ranks very very quickly. Obviously history shows Bryce McGain had a shocker in his one and only international match, but it was a pretty remarkable effort to get there.
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why else would he of been picked for the PM XI?
 
I'd wager the PM has more to lose by showing support for that demographic....

Anyway the PM doesn't pick the team. obviously CA picked Ahmed, Usman & Gurinder Sandhu for a reason. No real problem with it either. Other than that Ashton Agar instead of Turner would have made more sense from a diversity pov.
 
thorne89 said:
Hmm, I wonder why the PM would like to suck up to that particular demographic.
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why else was he selected form? a potential spinner for Australia, he had just made his fc debut, at the age of 33
look at the full picture, its a good news story for julia and other refugees in australia & most likely some international media outlets will publish the story.
 
brisbane13 said:
why else was he selected form? a potential spinner for Australia, he had just made his fc debut, at the age of 33
look at the full picture, its a good news story for julia and other refugees in australia & most likely some international media outlets will publish the story.
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I actually think we are agreeing haha.
 
I'm as cynical as they come about these things, but having watched some of the game he was definitely there on merit.

The one wicket I saw was about as good as it gets for a leg spinner. Three perfectly pitched leg-breaks, landing on off then spinning away. Then a wrongun landing on the exact same spot, spinning back and completely fooling the batsman plumb LBW. This was to a top order batsman set on 87, too.
 
brisbane13 said:
why else was he selected form? a potential spinner for Australia, he had just made his fc debut, at the age of 33
look at the full picture, its a good news story for julia and other refugees in australia & most likely some international media outlets will publish the story.
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He hasn't made his fc debut fwiw
 

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eth-dog said:
He hasn't made his fc debut fwiw
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well there you go, all it is a happy news story for old julia.

regardless on his good he is, inst it better to put time and resources in to a young kid, that you ll get more than 3 r 4 years max out of
 
Err, Ahmed has certainly made his FC debut, just not in Australia. Played 10 FC matches in Pakistan between 2005-2009, for 23 wickets @ 34.

2/30 and 3/47 in his two List A matches for Victoria, coupled with impressive club numbers, certainly suggest to me he's playing on merit. What is interesting, however, is the fact his initial application for asylum was rejected until Cricket Victoria/Australia got involved.
 
DrVanNostrand said:
Err, Ahmed has certainly made his FC debut, just not in Australia. Played 10 FC matches in Pakistan between 2005-2009, for 23 wickets @ 34.

2/30 and 3/47 in his two List A matches for Victoria, coupled with impressive club numbers, certainly suggest to me he's playing on merit. What is interesting, however, is the fact his initial application for asylum was rejected until Cricket Victoria/Australia got involved.
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We need immigrants with skills, particularly doctors, nurses, middle order bats and leg spin bowlers :p
 
bowls a pretty good ball but looks to bowl a few too many lose ones for the top level. Who knows, he's not that far off it but it's a fine line. Could be handy in india perhaps.
 
Phone said:
cool. i feel if you have australian citizenship you should be able to represent the national cricket team of australia.
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good post but as long as your not picked for political reasons. Ahmed was picked for a good news story buy gillard for the pm XI game. being 33 and not having his fc debut in Australia yet, it was political reasons.
but to fawad ahmeds credit, he since gone on to represent victoria



.
 
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