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What happened to Shabbir Ahmed?

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radahad

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According to Cricinfo he was banned for a year in 2005 for a "suspect action" and has not played Tests or ODIs ever since:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/canada/content/player/42632.html

His stats are VERY GOOD.

How can his action be suspect? They Saeed Ajmal'd him too?

And he apparently played in 1 T20I match after that but never played another international match again, does anyone know what this guy's story is?
 
I'm sure he still plays domestic cricket. He probably isn't as good as he was before he got banned.
 
I was wondering the same thing myself as I was watching videos of the series vs England in 2005. He was reported a number of times, then banned for a year and that was that as far as playing for Pakistan.
 
He was 33 years old when he got reported and then he went to the ICL. He could no longer bowl with a proper action. I once remember Aqib Javed criticizing Shabbir's fitness and he was like he starts to have problems with his action when he gets tired and bowls long spells.
 
i remember him from the india vs pakistan series in 2004... he was a blatant chucker.... very easy to see

he came back with a remodeled action and played a T20 vs South Africa and got owned....
 
His action had improved from 2003 to 2004 but then he got injured and when he came back he started to chuck once he started bowling long spells.
 
Banned from international arena. Saw him last time on some Ramzan T20's in 2013. He was still bowling impressively there and owning our mediocre tullay baaz batsman with the extra bounce he was generating.
 
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One of the quickest Pakistani bowlers to 50 test wickets IIRC.
 
radahad said:
According to Cricinfo he was banned for a year in 2005 for a "suspect action" and has not played Tests or ODIs ever since:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/canada/content/player/42632.html

His stats are VERY GOOD.

How can his action be suspect? They Saeed Ajmal'd him too?

And he apparently played in 1 T20I match after that but never played another international match again, does anyone know what this guy's story is?
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Did you actually see him play? You didn't need any biomechanical testing to see that he was a chucker. It was very obvious he pelted the ball.
 
Made his ODI debut on 19th September (today).

Had high hopes for him but alas not to be.
 
Bowled some amazing match winning spells for Pakistan. So did Ajmal, Akhtar, Hafeez etc.

Pakistan cricket - whatever success it got in 00's and early '10's this century, owes a lot to its elite factory line of chucking bowlers - hyperextension or not.

Thank goodness they are gone and the debate is back on the quality of Pakistan cricket...oh wait
 
There were legitimate doubts over his action. He was lucky to play as long as he did.

We need to think about how players with illegal actions keep getting selected for Pakistan and not being picked up at lower levels.
 
His action was nowhere near as bad as Ajmal's. But those days, it was a lot harder to get away with chucking, especially for a pace bowler.
 
I dont think he chucked all the time. He did fix his action for a while but then due to fitness issues couldnt sustain the new action and ended up chucking again. I think he also had some mental health issues. Was a very good bowler with the new ball though.
 
45 years of age today.

Started off well but the action was always suspect.
 
He was banned but to call him a full on chucker isn’t fair. I remember watching him and he never looked like he would take a wicket but he would bowl a good line and length and keep it there and take wickets.

I remember watching him bowl to England and Ian botham said on commentary he doesn’t look threatening and doesn’t look like he will take a wicket - he then went onto take I think 5 or more wickets
 
Yes was an awesome bowler. Could have been a real contender but unfortunately got no support. The biomechanics equipment ordered by Naseem Ashraf came a little too late in his case but the fact remains with such a blatantly crooked action he should have remodelled it a lot sooner than when he arrived on the international stage.

Just makes you think how awful our management was just even 10-15 years ago that we failed to set up any systems and procedures to assist our players.
 
I hated watching him bowl. Perhaps he can make a comeback even now if his action has improved. Some people never get old:afridi
 
51 wickets in 10 Tests at 23.03

33 wickets in 32 ODIs at 36.12

On this day in 1976, Former right-arm pacer Shabbir Ahmed was born. Happy birthday to him.
 
Injustice happened with this guy. He wasn't a complete chucker. Maybe a slight kink in his action.

But he was devastating used to bang it down on a good length in the corridor of uncertainty from a 3 storey building release point.
 
Rashid Latif posted this on behalf of Shabbir Ahmed on his X (account)

I am Shabbir Ahmed, a Test cricketer, and I promised to serve cricket at the grassroots level. So, I started my work, but I encountered numerous problems at this level. There are groups and associations with problematic relationships at the top, and the ministers are indifferent. Working on merit is extremely challenging in this environment. Despite ignoring many issues and continuing my work, I was not allowed to proceed, leaving me deeply disappointed. If we continue to work without merit and cater to personal preferences, cricket will suffer. This flawed system has been in place for a long time. The biggest issue is the solo flight, where a boy works hard for a year, gets recommended, and then is replaced by someone else. The authorities lack the courage to stop this, and they seem unaware of the constraints they are trapped in. Consequently, our cricket has deteriorated to the point where a team like Bangladesh has beaten us convincingly. I thank my friends and supporters at the grassroots level, but I am disappointed and pained, leading me to decide to resign.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1831554796492394948
 
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You know that sad thing is that he was a humble guy and an awesome bowler. A rarity in Pakistan due to his height. But just think about this. He was in the team around 2004/5 when we had Asif emerging Shohaib , Sami kaneria gul etc so he could have been devastating as part of that lineup. We had all the biomechanics equipment and a fantastic coach in bob woolmer coming on board around that time. Just a shame we couldn’t rectify his action a little bit and bring him back. He only had a slight kink.
 
Abid Z said:
You know that sad thing is that he was a humble guy and an awesome bowler. A rarity in Pakistan due to his height. But just think about this. He was in the team around 2004/5 when we had Asif emerging Shohaib , Sami kaneria gul etc so he could have been devastating as part of that lineup. We had all the biomechanics equipment and a fantastic coach in bob woolmer coming on board around that time. Just a shame we couldn’t rectify his action a little bit and bring him back. He only had a slight kink.
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Nah bro he was a full scale chucker. One of the biggest at times.
 
Abid Z said:
You know that sad thing is that he was a humble guy and an awesome bowler. A rarity in Pakistan due to his height. But just think about this. He was in the team around 2004/5 when we had Asif emerging Shohaib , Sami kaneria gul etc so he could have been devastating as part of that lineup. We had all the biomechanics equipment and a fantastic coach in bob woolmer coming on board around that time. Just a shame we couldn’t rectify his action a little bit and bring him back. He only had a slight kink.
Click to expand...
This. I don't think his extension was anywhere close to someone like Ajmal's.

It may have "looked" a bit more obvious.

But from what I remember , whenever the guy bowled without that kink, his pace reduced a lot and looked pretty ineffective.

Bit too old to come back with an effective legal action also.

He was already 29 or so.
 
Shabbir gave India a hard time in that 2004 Jeet Lo Dil series.

He did well in patches.
 
Nikhil_cric said:
This. I don't think his extension was anywhere close to someone like Ajmal's.

It may have "looked" a bit more obvious.

But from what I remember , whenever the guy bowled without that kink, his pace reduced a lot and looked pretty ineffective.

Bit too old to come back with an effective legal action also.

He was already 29 or so.
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Lol, Shabbir Ahmed was the very definition of a watta bowler. Might as well tell him to play baseball and pitch with that wata action. How he escaped public eye for so long is beyond me.

As for ajmal, ajmal didn't use to chuck when he came on, and in 2010, he only chucked sparingly, 90% of the time he was bowling proper, but that Mike hussey beating caused him to do it 24/7.

But yes saeed Ajmal is worse jwcause Saeed willingly did it knowing full well he was chucking while shabbir just thought he was playing by the rules and his action is normal and unique to him. Shabbir is more so a failure on PCB's part.

But after he tried to rectify his action he got spanked.
 
I remember seeing shabbir in early 2000s and being inspired.

In our street we used to bowl against an upward slope so all of us would bowl normally for full balls but would chuck the short or length ball else it would just sit up really slow

Shabbir showed us that you could reach intl level with such action. It was rude shock for many and led to many batta bowler fights in gullu when he was called and banned.
 
Shabbir was a decent bowler, he managed to control his arm at times, but that series vs England in 2005 he just couldn’t do it. The chucking looked really bad. It would have plagued his whole career.
 
Reminds me of that Pakistani keeper who ran away to England and tried to claim asylum. I'm forgetting the name.
 
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He was basically throwing the ball in his last series against Windies in 2005. It was embarrassing watching him bowl and I remember the umpires struggling to decide what to do during the match. Even if he wasn’t a checker he didn’t have the killer instinct.
 
He is analyst now, commenting on Zim v Pak

Batsmen played poor shots.

Pitch was slow ad spinning, chasing on this wicket was bad choice.
 
He is analyst now, commenting on Zim v Pak 1st ODI

Batsmen played poor shots.

Pitch was slow ad spinning, chasing on this wicket was bad choice.

3 debuts also created an inexperienced side and we took Zim lightly, whole world is playing modern cricket, our standard is mediocre.

Rizwan needs to improve his batting, our selection process is questionable, our seniors do not play domestic cricket. Selectors need to look beyond stats.

Meanwhile the host asked scathing questions to other panelist.

Like KG the best domestic is getting exposed. Salman Agha not suited for white ball cricket
Rizwan batting slowly.
 
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His action must have been blatantly Chucky because it was controversially the era of chuckers and many got away with it with the narrowest of margins. Fact that PCB didn’t even bother to take up his case for an appeal to ICC must mean it was quite bad.

I agree he seemed like a great bowler. The dude was tall with a high arm action. The release point must have been as high as it could get.
 
He was a list of Pakistani players targeted in an unfair fashion hafeez , malik , akhtar , ajmal and today hasnain

His action was no worse than bumrah who is a blatant chucker .

Our spinners were continously banned yet harbhajan a chucker and the suspicion action at times of ashwin never called.
 
mazkhan said:
He was a list of Pakistani players targeted in an unfair fashion hafeez , malik , akhtar , ajmal and today hasnain

His action was no worse than bumrah who is a blatant chucker .

Our spinners were continously banned yet harbhajan a chucker and the suspicion action at times of ashwin never called.
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lol "Unfair"

64eea8094d15991b92dd16b299714757.jpg
 
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