The evergreen Mohammad Nabi is still there playing and fighting for his team. He is the captain of a team that likes to go off its course if not handled by a steady and calm hand. Nabi might be 37 years old, yet he has only improved as a cricketer over the years and is a calming influence that the team has been required for a long time.
When Imran Khan would win the cricket world cup of 1992 and inspire his country, little did he know that he was also inspiring another group of people who belonged from another country that was in crises. Nabi would be one of those cricketers that would get interested in cricket from the 1992 world cup win. He would start playing the game in a refugee camp of Peshawar where he lived.
Nabi belongs from the earlier class of Afghani Cricketers who were handed over the baton from Allah Dad Noori and Taj Malik. Both Allah Dad Noori and Taj Malik would establish the grass roots of Afghanistan Cricket by creating an association, getting it accepted by the Taliban Govt at the time and than getting ICC’s recognition, and while this wasn’t enough, they were scouting people that could actually play the game.
Mohammad Nabi, Asghar Stanikzai, Shapoor Zadran and Hamid Hassan were these earlier cricketers. In fact, they were at the time considered as the future of Afghanistan Cricket. Nabi would start playing club cricket from Arshad Khan’s academy in Peshawar after which he would return to his homeland back in 2003.
However, it would be years before Nabi would get recognized worldwide. Nabi was an off-spin bowler competing in a world where off spinners were chucking to the top of the charts. While Nabi bowled an off spin delivery with a legal action he had very limited spin. His breakthrough would come when Mike Gatting spotted him along with Hamid Hassan. In fact, Nabi would get spotted for his batting master class where he struck a 39 ball century. That was enough for him to be selected and be part of the MCC.
Over the years, Nabi has gone through a lot. His team would face the disappointment of not qualifying for the 2011 world cup for which they placed a very good campaign. When his team finally did qualify, there would be issues by his cricket board who would remove Asghar Afghan as captain and select Gulbaddin as the man in charge. This would result in a winless 2019 world cup for a team that many had high hopes for. If that was not bad, his country would face a regime change that would put their whole cricket association in a jeopardy, almost wasting the hard work of Nabi and co.
Nabi started off with Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Mohammad Shehzad and Asghar Afghan. However, while the rest of the group have reached their retirement ages or are in decline, Nabi still stands tall like a stalwart, fighting the battles of his team with a new group of youngsters.
Nabi also has a 16-year-old son, Hassan Khan. Who knows, the way Nabi is playing and performing these days, we might get to see a father son duo in international cricket.
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