Sajid Mahmood
Encyclopedia
Sajid "Saj" Iqbal Mahmood (Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

: ساجد اقبال محمود, Sājid Iqbāl Maḥmūd; born 21 December 1981 in Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

) is an English cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er of Pakistani descent. He is a right-arm fast-medium
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

 bowler who plays international cricket for England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...

 and county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...

 for Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

.

Youth and early career

Sajid Mahmood's grandfather, Llal Khan, emigrated from Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...

 in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 to England with his family in 1968. The family settled in Halliwell
Halliwell, Greater Manchester
Halliwell is predominantly a residential area of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It gives its name to an electoral ward of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. Halliwell lies about to the north west of Bolton town centre and is bounded by Tonge Moor to the east and Heaton to the south...

, a residential area of Bolton. Sajid Mahmood was born on 21 December 1981, in a Rajput family, the son of Shahid Mahmood, and grew up with his family. He has a sister and two brothers and is first cousin to boxer Amir Khan
Amir Khan (boxer)
Amir Iqbal Khan , is a British Pakistani professional boxer who is currently the unified WBA & IBF light welterweight champion....

. Khan is five years younger than Mahmood and the two cousins stay close, having grown up living near to each other.

Mahmood began playing club cricket
Club cricket
Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are always observed...

 in the Bolton Leagues, and played well enough to be signed by Lancashire in 2002. He made his debut for Lancashire in 2002 whilst on a scholarship with the club.

Breakthrough

He won the NBC Denis Compton Award
NBC Denis Compton Award
The NBC Denis Compton Award is an annual award given to 'The Most Promising Young Player' at each of the 18 English first-class counties. A player may receive the award more than once.-History:...

 in 2003; in the same year, he inadvertently broke the hands of Lancashire team-mate Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...

 and England A team-mate Alex Gidman
Alex Gidman
Alexander Peter Richard Gidman is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who currently plays for Gloucestershire....

, an early indicator of his pace. In September 2003, Mahmood was one of England 14 cricketers selected to train with the England Cricket Board's National Academy
ECB National Academy
The National Cricket Performance Centre first came into existence in the winter of 2001-2002 and has been based at Loughborough University since 2003. In 2007 following the "Schofield Report" the National Academy was renamed The National Cricket Performance Centre. It consists of a state of the art...

 during the winter.

Despite having taken only six first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 wickets, Mahmood was chosen for England A
England A cricket team
The England Lions cricket team is a cricket team representing England and Wales. It is the "second-tier" of international English cricket below the full England cricket team, and is largely intended as a way for promising young cricketers to gain experience of playing international cricket...

's tour to India
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....

 and Malaysia
Malaysian cricket team
The Malaysia national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Malaysia in international cricket matches. They have been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 1967.-Early days:...

 in 2003–04. He made his One Day International debut for England against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...

 at Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 in July 2004, but his seven overs proved expensive, conceding 56 runs without a wicket. More recently, he toured India with England in early 2006, playing in the third, sixth and seventh ODIs and taking several wickets.

He was included in the Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 squad against Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan cricket team
The Sri Lankan cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation...

 in 2006 following injuries to Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....

, James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...

 and Simon Jones
Simon Jones (cricketer)
Simon Philip Jones MBE is a Welsh cricketer, who played internationally for England. Formerly playing his county cricket for Glamorgan County Cricket Club and then Worcestershire before moving in September 2009 to Hampshire. He is currently on a month's loan with his first county, Glamorgan...

, and earned his first cap on 11 May 2006 in the first Test at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...

, becoming England's 633rd Test player. England reached an imposing first-innings score of 551, and Mahmood took three wickets in his first four overs in Test cricket at the end of the second day, as the Sri Lankan team disintegrated to 91 for 6 at the close. He was unable to add to his tally before Sri Lanka were forced to follow on early on the third day, but added two further wickets in Sri Lanka's more composed second innings on the fourth day.

Mahmood was replaced by Jon Lewis
Jon Lewis
Jonathan "Jon" Lewis is an English cricketer. He was brought up in Swindon where he went to Churchfields School and Swindon College. He played for Swindon CC and, in Minor Counties cricket, for Wiltshire County Cricket Club in 1993. He joined Northamptonshire in 1994 and played for its Second XI...

 for the third Test against Sri Lanka. However on 27 July 2006 he was selected ahead of Lewis for the second Test against Pakistan
Pakistani cricket team
The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....

 at Old Trafford after Liam Plunkett
Liam Plunkett
Liam Edward Plunkett is an English cricketer, who plays for Durham and England. In the 2005 season he was Durham's leading first-class wicket-taker, with 51 wickets at a bowling average of 30.84, including eight for 88 in his first game of the season against Leicestershire.-Test cricket:Plunkett...

 was ruled out due to injury. Although the pitch at Old Trafford favoured seamers, Mahmood performed relatively poorly. However, he was retained for the Third Test at Headingley. He contributed 34 runs with the bat in England's first innings, but then went for 108 runs over 24 overs, albeit with two wickets, in a high-scoring Pakistan first innings. In the second innings, he took 4 wickets for only 22 runs in 8 overs, contributing significantly to England's series-clinching victory. He featured in the final match of the series, dubbed Ovalgate. He took 2-101 in Pakistan's first innings before the game was forfeited by Pakistan for refusing to take the field during England's second innings.

England in Australia 2006–07

Mahmood was selected for England's 2006-07 Ashes squad, but James Anderson was selected ahead of him for the first and second tests. For the third Test in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 Mahmood and Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...

 replaced Anderson and Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...

. He featured sporadically in the test, bowling just 7 overs in Australia's
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 first innings and 10 in their second, taking no wickets. He later expressed his unhappiness about not bowling more during the test.
Mahmood also played in the ODI match against Australia on 2 February 2007 in Sydney, taking 2 wickets for 38 runs, and sharing the new ball with fellow fast bowler
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

 Liam Plunkett
Liam Plunkett
Liam Edward Plunkett is an English cricketer, who plays for Durham and England. In the 2005 season he was Durham's leading first-class wicket-taker, with 51 wickets at a bowling average of 30.84, including eight for 88 in his first game of the season against Leicestershire.-Test cricket:Plunkett...

. He took the wicket of Brad Hodge
Brad Hodge
Bradley John Hodge is an Australian and Victorian cricketer. He attended St Bede's College in Mentone, Victoria. He is a right hand batsman who bats in the middle order, as well as a part time right arm off spin bowler....

 by bowling him. He also took the wicket of destructive batsman Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...

 after Hayden had scored 51. Hayden hit the ball straight to Jamie Dalrymple
Jamie Dalrymple
James William Murray "Jamie" Dalrymple is a Kenyan-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler....

. He has appeared in a Bollywood film called Victory
Victory (film)
Victory is a 2009 Indian cricket-based sports film starring Harman Baweja, Amrita Rao and Anupam Kher. It is Harman Baweja's second release after his debut film Love Story 2050, which performed very badly at the box office. The movie was filmed in Australia and India, and is said to be one of...

.

2007 World Cup

After his successful performances in the Commonwealth Bank Series victory over Australia, Mahmood was shortlisted for the 15-man England squad for the World Cup
2007 Cricket World Cup
The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007, using the sport's One Day International format...

. Although he wasn't selected for the first few matches, he came into the side against Canada. Against Sri Lanka in the Super Eight stage he produced his best figures in a ODI match, taking the wickets of Sanath Jayasuriya
Sanath Jayasuriya
Sanath Teran Jayasuriya is a former Sri Lankan cricketer. An all-rounder, he played for the Sri Lankan cricket team from 1989 to 2011...

 and Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara is a Sri Lankan, Sinhalese cricketer and the former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. He is a left-handed top-order batsman...

 in his spell of 4-50. After his successful bowling figures against Sri Lanka, he was picked for the match against Australia. Despite being England's most expensive bowler in that match, he was picked for the following match against Bangladesh, in which he took 3 wickets for 27 runs. England won and Mahmood was awarded Man of the Match
Man of the match
In sport, a Man of the Match or Player of the Game or Man of the Series award is given to the outstanding player, almost always the one who makes the most impact, in a particular match or series. The term was originally used more often in cricket before being adopted by other sports. This can be a...

.

Return to the county circuit

In a County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...

 match against Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...

, Mahmood suffered a chest injury that threatened to prematurely end his 2008 season.

On 26 November 2008, Mahmood was drafted into England's squad for the last two ODI matches against India in their seven match tour. He and bowler Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan was an acclaimed Indian actor and director. He worked in over 130 films in his film career spanning nearly twenty years. He enjoyed popularity for his villainous roles in Hindi films the most famous being the unforgettable Gabbar Singh in 1975 classic Sholay...

 were called up as replacements for the injured Stuart Broad
Stuart Broad
Stuart Christopher John Broad is a cricketer who plays Test and One Day International cricket for England and is currently the captain of their Twenty20 team...

 and Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...

. Mahmood and Khan were in Bangalore with England's Performance Programme Squad. The final two ODIs were cancelled after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and the England squad returned home due to safety concerns. Mahmood was part of the England Lions for the winter tour of New Zealand. While Khan debuted for England over the winter, Mahmood did not feature in any matches for the full England side. Despite this, he was selected in England's 25-man performance squad, and was identified by national selector Geoff Miller as being close to playing for England. Although he was part of England's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20
2009 ICC World Twenty20
The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 was an international Twenty20 cricket tournament which took place in England in June 2009. It was the second ICC World Twenty20 tournament, following the inaugural event in South Africa in September 2007...

, he did not make the final squad of 15.

In April, Mahmood was selected to represent the England Lions against the West Indies. Despite being overlooked by England for the first Test of the summer, in May Mahmood secured his career-best bowling figures and his maiden 10-wicket haul. In a Lancashire victory over Worcestershire
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...

 by six wickets, Mahmood took 6/75 and finished with match figures of 10/140. Mahmood was one of several Lancashire bowlers unable to play in August 2009. He, Glen Chapple
Glen Chapple
Glen Chapple is an English cricketer. He is an all-rounder, and represented the national team in a One Day International, as well as performing well for Lancashire over many years. He bowls right-arm fast-medium, and is a right-handed batsman...

, Steven Cheetham
Steven Cheetham
Steven Philip Cheetham is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast bowler who plays for Lancashire. He was born in Oldham, Greater Manchester, and attended Bury Grammar School. Cheetham, who also plays local league cricket for Heywood Cricket Club, made his Second XI...

, and Tom Smith
Tom Smith (cricketer)
Thomas Christopher Smith, , is a cricketer who currently plays for Lancashire County Cricket Club. He has also been a member of the England Academy team. In 2008, he played for Leicestershire on loan because he was unable to break into Lancashire's first team. He is an all-rounder, bowling...

 were injured and Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson were on England duty. As a stop-gap measure, Tom Lungley
Tom Lungley
Tom Lungley is an English cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler.During his five seasons at the top of the English game, he played for Derbyshire in List A and Twenty20 cricket...

 was loaned by Lancashire from Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...

. After he finished the season with 41 first-class wickets at an average of 34.00, and 24 list A wickets at an average of 23.33, Mahmood was recalled to the England One Day International squad for their tour of South Africa
English cricket team in South Africa in 2009–10
-2nd T20I:-1st ODI:-2nd ODI:-3rd ODI:-4th ODI:-5th ODI:-1st Test:-2nd Test:-3rd Test:-4th Test:-50-over tour match: England XI v Diamond Eagles:-50-over tour match: England XI v Chevrolet Warriors :...

 in the winter of 2009.

Although Mahmood emphasised the work he put into improving his consistency in his two years out of the international squad, he was expensive on his come back and conceded 92 runs and took 2 wickets from the 7 overs he bowled in England's two Twenty20 Internationals against South Africa, and played in just one of the ODIs, in which he took 1/41. Mahmood joined Western Australia
Western Warriors
The Western Australia cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team representing the state of Western Australia...

 as an overseas player for the domestic T20 competition during the 2010/11 season. He played in five matches for them, taking five wickets at an average of 30.2.

In June 2011, in a match against Durham, Mahmood took his second ten-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Mahmood attributed his bowling success in 2011 to being more focused on playing for Lancashire; he said that before he had been distracted by trying to earn selection for England and that he performs better when relaxed.

External links

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