Afghan cricket legend Mohammad Nabi on the Big Bash, his roots and inspiring the next generation
Adelaide spin king Rashid Khan has bamboozled every batsman in the Big Bash... except one. Meet the Melbourne Renegades jet who can pick every delivery the Strikers’ star bowls and knows how to take him “downtown”.
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Melbourne Renegades superstar Mohammad Nabi is the pioneer of Afghanistan cricket.
The 33-year-old was the first man to captain his nation at a World Cup and is the ICC’s No.2-ranked all-rounder in both ODI and T20 cricket.
He’s paved the way for the likes of countrymen and fellow Big Bash League young guns Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman to make their mark in world cricket.
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And while he has always been quick to offer advice to Adelaide Strikers wunderkind Khan, 20, and new Brisbane Heat mystery spinner Mujeeb, just 17, the youngsters know their place when it comes to the man who has played in every one day international game his country has ever competed in.
“Both Rashid and Mujeeb can’t bowl to me,” Nabi says with a wry smile.
“I pick ‘em, easy. They know.
“In the last IPL, Mujeeb bowled two overs in the powerplay and then he came on later and I was on the strike and he told me that he was scared about that. He had four sixes hit off him — I hit two and two from the other batsman. He said ‘you hit me a lot that time’.
“In the T10 in Sharjah last month, (West Indian all-rounder Dwayne) Bravo out me, and Rashid came from mid-off and said ‘it’s good you got out’ because he didn’t want to bowl to me.”
Backing up his playful jibes last Sunday, Nabi had no trouble negotiating Khan in the Renegades’ win over the Strikers, even blasting the spinner for a massive six as his Team Red teammates were bamboozled — the star finishing with a remarkable 2/13 off four overs.
Nabi raves about protégé Khan, who he says one of the best cricketers in the world, while “you can’t teach” Mujeeb’s remarkable bag of tricks.
Nabi knows what it’s like to grow up with very little — he spent his youth in a refugee camp in Pakistan after his family fled Afghanistan to seek refuge from the Soviet war, playing cricket “wherever we could”.
“It’s a tough time over there, there’s no facility for anything, but in Pakistan, there is a love for cricket,” he said.
“When we go to the school, lots of cricket, came back from the school, we see everywhere cricket. That’s why we love this game.”
Nabi’s father, in 2013, was kidnapped in Afghanistan and held to ransom by “local goons” while he was playing cricket in Ireland, later freed by government officers.
He learnt his craft with tennis balls in Pakistan and then playing in Afghanistan on grounds with no grass and concrete pitches, before being thrust into the national side at just 16.
He doesn’t want that for the next generation of cricketers from his country and he, along with fellow refugee Roman Sadath, are planting the seeds for a relationship between Australian and Afghan cricket through the Nabi International Cricket Academy, based at Casey Fields, Cranbourne, in Melbourne’s southeast.
With more than 10,000 Afghan families living in Greater Melbourne, Nabi says he wants to give them an opportunity to learn cricket, but also to bring talented cricketers from Afghanistan to Australia.
“It’s not just for Afghan refugees here, but all youngsters … the next step will be we will open my academy in Afghanistan as well,” he said.
The game comes naturally to Nabi, who has already produced two matchwinning knocks of 35, rescuing the Renegades from 4/17 in helping them beat the Perth Scorchers for the first time ever, and then 48 not out off 30 balls in a victory over the reigning champion Adelaide Strikers.
And he captured the imagination of the Aussie cricketing public with a gem of an interview following the knock, perhaps not fully understanding the questioning from Fox Cricket’s Sarah Jones when she asked about all-rounder Dan Christian, who had spent the morning in hospital battling illness.
“How impressed where you with Dan considering he was in hospital this morning?” Jones asked
“Who?” Nabi asked, perplexed.
“Dan Christian, being in hospital this morning, he was crook,” Jones replied.
“Oh, I don’t know about that, yeah, sorry, but God gave him good health as well.”
Nabi doesn’t fear anyone with bat or ball — except maybe Aussie master blaster Chris Lynn.
“Chris Lynn, I never bowled to him, but it’s tough to bowl to him, because he’s a great striker,” he said.
“The economy and strike rate of Chris Lynn against spinners is quite low, so that way I’m really happy to try.
“It doesn’t matter who I’m bowling to — if you’re worried, you lose the shape and lose the confidence.
“Asian conditions are quite suitable for us as spinners, but coming to Australia is quite tough, there’s no turn — especially for the T20s, they make flat pitches, so it’s quite tough to bowl over here.”
He says playing under the roof at Marvel Stadium is a unique experience.
“When I play last year, I sat in the dressing room, in front of two big TV screens and the pavilion is across and it looks like a video game — it’s quite fun, I love this ground,” he said.
Without Australian Test openers Aaron Finch and Marcus Harris, Nabi says the Renegades will rely on keeping sides to low totals, with the likes of Kane Richardson, Jack Wildermuth, Christian and boom Pakistani recruit Usman Shinwari.
“Missing our top two batsman Finch and Harry, it hurts,” he said.
“If you lose two good batsman from the top it’s tough, but we are quite good in the middle order and our bowling side is very strong as well.”
Nabi was the Renegades’ best player last season before his BBL07 campaign was cut short by national team duties, going at under six an over and picking up eight wickets, while cracking a half century against the Melbourne Stars.
He’s signed with the Renegades until the end of 2020.
***The Academy will launch on Friday, January 4, from 5.30pm at Cranbourne Cricket Club, Casey Fields. Nabi says a number of his BBL teammates will attend the launch, along with Khan, whose Strikers play the Renegades in Geelong the night before.
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