Of Munir Ali and shaping cricketing lives

The Hindu

9 hours ago

Munir Ali breathes cricket. After helping shape the career of his nephew Kabir Ali, who represented England in one Test and 14 ODIs, and then making Moeen Ali the cricketer he was — World Cup winner and an all-format champion — his current pet project is creating internationals out of his four grandsons.
The latest source of pride is 17-year-old Isaac Mohammed who scored a 28-ball 42 against the visiting Indian U-19 team on Friday to leave his 70-year-old grandfather chuffed.
'He's [Isaac] is similar to Moeen, the way he plays. I remember he got out a few weeks ago and his father said 'you could have played the right shot.' Isaac replied, 'if that ball had gone for a six you would have said well played'. So that is the attitude.'
As rosy and happy as it all seems now, things were tough for Munir in his early days. Born to a Pakistani-origin father and British mother, Munir worked as a male nurse and did odd jobs even as he completed his coaching badges to nurture the next generation's cricketing aspirations. The race barrier was an added hurdle.
'I remember Bishan Singh Bedi, a family friend of ours, saying to Kabir, 'you need to be 20 times better than the white guys'. He also said 'when you're playing in the team, you have to believe that you're the number one. Think like that and everything comes automatically'.'
Moeen followed this advice diligently, going on to represent England in 68 Tests, 138 ODIs and 92 T20Is.
But Munir felt his son could have finished with better numbers.
'I always ask the question, why did Moeen bat so low (No. 8, 9)? Why couldn't anybody else bat at No. 8? Why the sacrifice? To accommodate others. But he's still very lucky. He scored 3000 Test runs [3094], 200 wickets [204]. He's one of few who've done that.'
Munir, who runs the Moeen Ali Cricket Academy here, said that while his son's success had indeed made it better for children with immigrant backgrounds, challenges remained.
The racism scandal at Yorkshire involving player Azeem Rafiq is still fresh in memory. Birmingham, in fact, has 31% population with Asian ethnicity.
'To be honest, apart from Worcestershire, there were a lot of other counties with similar things. Yorkshire was very obvious, yes. My home county is Warwickshire and I love it. That's where I do my cricket development. But even Moeen had to leave once, and he developed his game at Worcestershire.'
'So it's been a difficult journey. But it's getting better. Chief Executive [of Warwickshire] Stuart Cain is very good with me and very helpful. I am hoping only the best things happen.'