Your favorite Pakistani spinner!

There is always talk about great Pakistani pace bowling talents from Fazal Mahmood to M Aamer but today is the day for spinners. There have been some useful bowlers like Iqbal Qasim, A Rehman and Mushtaq Ahmed but i can't imagine anyone picking their favorite bowler outside the following three

1- Abdul Qadir- Grew up in one of the poorest areas of Lahore, before playing for Pakistan he played almost all of his cricket in shalwar Kameez as he couldn't afford to purchase the appropriate clothing fora cricket match. The reason why i mention this is because he had never actually watched a professional cricket match and it is really unbelievable how he was able to master an art(leg spin) that was almost totally dead at the time. The skills of Abdul Qadir can be compared to those of an acquired savant who would just master something without ever being exposed to it. A lot of ex cricketers like Gooch rate him very high and some like Dickie Bird rate him higher than Warne(don't agree with that) however he was as much of a magician as Shane Warne and had every weapon that a leg spinner can dream of(googly being my favorite). A very simple and candid man but also very confident which was one of the reasons for his great success
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUrfTwR3MZU

2- Saqlain Mushtaq- Another poor man from Lahore who at the age of 19 invented a delivery that no one had ever seen, he was the first man to every bowl the doosra and some would argue that no other man has ever been able to "bowl" it again. He bamboozled batsman after batsman as they kept wanting to him on the on side, it was absolutely thrilling to watch him bowl at some of the masters against spin like Sachin Tendulkar and even he had some serious difficulty adjusting to this extraordinary delivery that has totally changed the game. Unfortunately, since no other bowler has been to bowl is as "cleanly" as Saqlain the cricketing authorities have had to change the rules probably because they don't want the doosra to ever disappear from the game.

3- Saeed Ajmal- He has a very similar personality to that of Abdul Qadir. Ajmal has been by far the best spinner in the game and has "bowled" the doosra with some stunning skill. His control over the doosra and his ability to spin it almost as much as a leg spinner has been quite fascinating to watch. There is no doubt that he is using the new rules to his advantage but the skill level is still quite unbelievable, the most amazing thing for me is his control over the doosra, i have rarely seen him bowl a genuinely poor delivery while trying to bowl a doosra.


So out of the three MY favorite is Saqlain Mushatq....

saqlain i guess. just for that doosra. qadir - over-rated. ajmal - too early to say

mushy was my favourite personality

Didn't see much of Qadir and though I admire Ajmal's skill, he's a filthy chucker.

So, I'm going Saqqy. Then Mushy.

Danish Kaneria is another one of the "decent" bowlers that i forgot about.

Abdul Qadir.

Lost his spark in later years (hence the 'overrated' tag). But he was a magician in his first four or five years, with his big googly supplementing his leg breaks.

The young umpires also had some serious difficulty picking Qadir, i heard during the last test in WI in 1988 about 8 or 9 LBW solid shouts were dismissed.

Yes Qadir would have gotten more wickets if there was DRS around, no doubt.

Never rated Danish really. Always a bit inflated reputation in comparison to his output.

Kaneria was quite ordinary - and ordinary enough in the fixing business to get caught - there are others who have done very well for themselves.

From what I saw of Qasim, he seemed more than just decent.

Who is Qasim?

Iqbal Qasim, I guess.


My favourite was Intikhab, although I am not saying he was the best.

He always carried the epithet "the burly ...." as far as I recall.

A fair lump of a lad.






Any votes for Pervez Sajjad?

I guess not.

Brass Monkey wrote:Never rated Danish really. Always a bit inflated reputation in comparison to his output.

His reputation is certainly no longer inflated after recent revelations from his time in Chavland.

I've always fancied a good Danish.

Qasim 171 wickets at 28.11
Qadir 236 wickets at 32.81


Qasim's away average 35.58
Qadir's away average 47.58

PlanetPakistan wrote:Danish Kaneria is another one of the "decent" bowlers that i forgot about.

So, one is a chucking cheat, and the other is merely a cheat.

I remember Qadir coming to Aus in 83/84 and we were petrified of him because he destroyed us in Pakistan the year before. There was a theory that he struggled against lefties so we stacked the team with them. Graham Yallop ffs went on to completely pwn him.

taipan wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Danish Kaneria is another one of the "decent" bowlers that i forgot about.

So, one is a chucking cheat, and the other is merely a cheat.

Match-fixing, chucking, recreational drugs and performance-enhancing ones - if a player involved himself in all four, would they cancel out and he would play to his natural ability?

Aye. His five years of wizardry were over by then.

I guess it's partly simply that people had forgotten about the wiles of LBG bowling ..... and eventually got it right. He was also beginning to put on the pounds though.

A sort of Warne in reverse ....

Anthony_Gonzales wrote:Yes Qadir would have gotten more wickets if there was DRS around, no doubt.

not if there was drs in pakistan

Favourite? I'm with Wally (ie intercourse alarm); thought the first Mushtaq was also fun to watch and I'm not sure why Wasim Raja hasn't been mentioned yet.

Best? Has to be between Iqbal Qasim and Iqbal Qadir, for me. Saqlain wasn't around long enough, IIRC hetook most of his wickets in the subcontinent ... not sure he'd be discussed at all if he hadn't made that century and managed to bowl a doosra without chucking. Ajmal is just a filthy chucking cheat.