Naseer Ahmed in his playing days in Pakistan and, on the facing page, in his current role as MCC YC coach.
© Naseer Ahmed
Arriving in England at the age of 35 is full of complications. For Naseer Ahmed it meant leaving behind his cricketing career to start a new life for him and his family of four.
As Rawalpindi captain for five years he had led internationals such as Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Azhar Ali and Saeed Ajmal to name but a few.
Naseer also represented Pakistan A as a top order bat with a side of off spin.
Yet those challenges were nothing compared to leaving his life behind and settling in Slough, famed for its trading estates and David Brent.
Yet if there was one area of continuity in his life it was cricket, which Naseer pursued with skill and vigour in the local club scene. Not wanting to leave his involvement at the crease, he made it clear he’ d jump at the chance to go into coaching, taking a level 2 course when the opportunity arose. And that, with no real channels open to pursue it further, was nearly that.
Then, at the start of this year, Gulfraz Riaz, chairman of the National Asian Cricket Council and a friend of Naseer’ s, contacted him and mentioned the strong working relationship he has with MCC Head Coach Steve Kirby. He asked if Naseer would be interested in doing a training session at Lord’ s with the MCC Young Cricketers( YCs).
Gulfraz’ s advice was that to bridge the gap between the South Asian cricketing communities, the ECB, County Cricket Boards and institutions like the MCC, there had to be a mentor or a person who had direct connectivity with those communities. Naseer was one of those bridges.
“ It has turned his life around,” Gulfraz explains,“ and he tells me how he’ s on cloud nine, walking into work at Lord’ s. But that’ s because he has something special to give, and that’ s the message with his story. If you have the skill and talent, it would be our loss – cricket in this country’ s loss – if we didn’ t make the most of that.
“ Working with Steve and the MCC YCs, and seeing the bigger picture of integration, has proved to be a fantastic opportunity for Naseer to express his coaching skills, becoming a valued member of MCC YC’ s coaching team.”
Naseer’ s desire to advance his coaching qualifications was also realised when Gulfraz managed to help Naseer to pursue the ECB Performance Coach course. This opportunity again was possible because of the strong relationship that had been built with the MCC YCs, with Steve supporting Naseer’ s application.
Steve went further by offering to pay half of the course fee and this was matched by the Berkshire Cricket Foundation. Gulfraz, as a trustee of the Berkshire Cricket Foundation, pointed out that Naseer is a Slough-based coach and as he was now coaching on the MCC YCs programme, perhaps Berkshire Cricket could also find a role for Naseer in its cricket programmes.
To Berkshire Cricket’ s credit this advice was taken as a huge positive and today Naseer is helping to drive a number of programmes with Berkshire Cricket Foundation, including the ECB City T20 Cup and working closely with Slough Borough Council.
Gulfraz is adamant that this model of community cricketing connectivity can be built across the country, as we learn from Naseer’ s journey and begin to explore the potential value of every coach.
Building Bridges 15