When Misbah came to Scotland: Part two

For part one, click here.

On July 5th 2003 the 29-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq made his first appearance in Scotland for Penicuik Cricket Club in a home match against Stirling County. Although rain at Kirkhill caused the game to be abandoned at the halfway point Misbah took the first three of the eleven wickets he would claim in his five appearances over July and early August, bowling a mixture of seam and cutters rather than the (albeit occasional) legspin he is more widely known for.

Pure pragmatism, as opening batsman Michael Yan Hip explained, was behind the switch. “If the weather is decent — and the summer of 2003 turned out to be a hot one — the middle of May to the end of June is when our wickets are usually at their best,” he said. “By the time July comes around and pitches are starting to be reused they tend to go very slow and low. These were exactly the sort of wickets Misbah encountered that year and they would probably have been unlike anything else he’d ever come across.

“We had had another Pakistani pro for a season during the nineties, Rizwan-uz-Zaman, he was a Test cricketer as well,” continued Yan Hip. “He could bat for fun, just batted all day, and like Misbah he was a legspinner.

“Nowadays we’re used to seeing leggies push the ball through that little bit quicker but in Pakistan legspinners have often tended to bowl a wee bit slower, in the vein of somebody like Mushtaq perhaps. But Rizwan found out that he couldn’t get away with bowling so slowly here. Because the wickets were slow the Scottish league sloggers would just smash him round the park.

“Mis recognised that so changed his approach.”

“Misbah started off bowling leggies but he didn’t have a lot of success,” said wicket-keeper Graeme Leslie. “Growing up in Pakistan he probably hadn’t seen many lush green decks of the type you tend to find in Scotland – even in the driest of summers there is always a bit of live grass on most of the wickets up here. The green pitches seemed to open his eyes a little so he started to bowl seam-up.”

“He bowled a bit quicker than your typical dibbly-dobbler though,” added Yan Hip, “because if I remember rightly Graeme couldn’t always stand up to him because the ball was coming on that bit quicker than you might have expected. He bowled a heavy ball and as he was coming in off only five or so paces it would surprise the batsman.

“He hit the bat hard and it wasn’t what they expected at all.”

Misbah ended with eleven wickets at 18.8. “He was always pretty accurate and in his five games got through about 60 overs. He did an important job for us,” said Leslie.

Although what worked for Misbah as a bowler was to work against him with the bat, he was in good company in finding it difficult to immediately adapt to Scottish conditions.

“If you look at the records of Mike Hussey, for instance, or Adam Gilchrist or Justin Langer, all of whom played cricket in Scotland, the number of runs they scored here was actually very limited,” said Yan Hip. “They didn’t know how to respond to this sort of pitch. The dibbly-dobbler type bowler is so hard to play if you’re that kind of player, the ball just doesn’t come on to the bat as you’re be used to.

“Twenty20 cricket has maybe changed that a bit now, batsmen these days just look to get their front leg out of the way and hit it anywhere between straight mid-on and midwicket. But at that time someone who was a classical player like Misbah would often struggle with that type of bowling on this sort of wicket.”

In keeping with that observation Misbah’s batting in Scotland turned out to be solid rather than spectacular. Having scored 37 not out in the comfortable eight wicket win over West Lothian – an innings that included a couple of on-drives that flew to the boundary ‘like tracer bullets’ – his much anticipated home batting debut ended in disappointment as he was bowled for a duck by Falkland’s Scott Sagar, who finished with figures of 5 for 52.

The Australian’s hostile and accurate bowling for the Fifers that day proved to be memorable for other reasons too. Former Warwickshire man Willie Morton’s half century, which proved to be the difference between the two sides, featured a huge caught behind appeal after the ball clipped his glasses when taking on a short ball!

After two wins and a no-result, Misbah’s Penicuik career was destined to end with two losses. He contributed 21 in the away game at Corstorphine before finishing back at Kirkhill with a scratchy 41 against Edinburgh Academicals, his final innings ending as he was LBW to Australian pro Steve Spoljaric.

Misbah was recalled to the Pakistan squad for the home series against Bangladesh. Club chairman John Downie drove him into Edinburgh.

“I saw him on to the train at Waverley station. We had a good chat and parted with him apologising for not fulfilling his potential for the club.”

But although Misbah felt the need to leave with an apology, the raw statistics of his time in Midlothian can only ever paint a part of the total picture. The impact of having an international star in your midst cannot be measured solely in numbers.

For Kris Steel, making his first appearances in the Penicuik senior team as a thirteen-year-old, studying an international batsman at such close quarters was an unforgettable experience.

“Misbah was great to watch,” he said. “I have always remembered one training session when he was receiving throw downs from Pete Brannan, our Australian amateur. Well, I say throw downs – Pete was actually bowling off a full run-up from the edge of the batting AstroTurf, letting fly at full pace about 10 yards from the bat! I don’t know how fast he was bowling but Misbah made it look like it was nothing he was so comfortable.

“He just made batting look completely effortless. He looked so confident, so in control and had so much time.”

One particular training night exploit has gone down in Penicuik folklore. Club captain Stephen Thomson remembers: “We had the portable net pulled out onto the square and Misbah duly proceeded to smash the ball all over Kirkhill. He cleared the surrounding houses and goodness only knows where the balls landed. It quickly became obvious that we had to stop as the locals could be in real danger!”

Stephen Green recalls that occasion well too, but despite that assertiveness with the bat remembers Misbah as a modest, unaffected colleague: “I found him to be a quiet, hard-working and highly intelligent man, someone who by his unassuming attitude you would never know as a future star. He was willing to spend time with everyone at the club, no matter what age or ability.” A host of junior players benefitted from Misbah’s patient coaching.

But alongside that self-effacing manner an unswerving dedication towards his own game was always to the fore.

“He trained very hard and looked after himself particularly well,” recalls Leslie. “I remember him doing laps of Kirkhill when everyone else was finished for the evening, conditioning work too. He was in great shape and I think that is definitely a reason as to why he has carried on for so long in his career.”

“I remember the final of the Masterton Trophy at Grange Loan (the home of Carlton CC in Edinburgh),” added Steel.

“Professionals weren’t – and still aren’t – allowed to play in that competition. But while the game was going on Misbah spent the best part of an hour doing laps of the ground. There must have been two or three hundred sitting there on the boundary watching the game but there he was, doing lap after lap. It just showed the extent to which he would go to maintain his fitness.

“It was just so rewarding for me as a kid to get an insight into how a guy who had already played several times for his country operated on and off the field.”

And what a career he would go on to have after that. Now in his forties and having already hinted about retirement during the recent series in the UAE the forthcoming tour to England may well prove to be Misbah-ul-Haq’s last. The PCB have made very public efforts to persuade their most successful captain to delay any such thoughts, urging him to look beyond the summer and towards the tour of Australia in 2016-17.

But wherever Misbah chooses to bring an end to his journey, his friends in Penicuik will be proud to have been able to join him for a few steps along the way.