By late May Sussex were pinching themselves. In four successive Championship wins, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Mushtaq Ahmed did their usual unfair share by taking 63 of the 80 wickets. Collectively they harvested seven five-fors and two of the country’s five first-class 10-fors (as of May 30), averaging 13. But rumours that Mushie is trying to qualify for England are charmingly but firmly quashed. “No,” he says with a grin. “Where’d that come from?”

The cricket manager Mark Robinson praised his wristspinner’s forbearance at Hove after the Nottinghamshire keeper Chris Read, riled by Mushtaq’s not infrequent appealing, attacked him on the boundary. “What did Read mean when he apologized for ‘my part in the incident’?” wonders Robinson. “He was the incident. But Mushie went out of his way to speak on his behalf. All he wanted to do was to talk about God and love.”

And what, apart from skill, brains and unquenchable enthusiasm, is Naved’s secret? Colleagues believe they may have spotted something Duncan Fletcher might care to note. Just before delivering the ball he rotates it with a sturdy right thumb, deceiving batsmen trying to detect which side he soaks for reverse-swing.
Rob Steen, The Wisden Cricketer