The first of eight South Asian Cricket Academy graduates to get a county contract, Kashif Ali has started the season in style, says Sam Dalling.
Ask a batter for their magic number, and most will tell you it is any containing three figures. But as Kashif Ali celebrated his maiden first-class century against Warwickshire last weekend, and then a second less than 48 hours later, the two digits visible on the back of his Worcestershire whites held as much significance.
“I played my first ever hardball game aged 15 for Dunstable Town in a friendly,” he tells TCP. “I was a bowler but, batting at 11, scored 27 not out. So that’s my shirt number as that’s where my cricket really kicked on, really started.”
The next week Ali batted at nine. Then at three for the 3rd XI. Then, a decade later, at three in the Vitality County Championship’s top tier.
Ali’s story – the latest chapter of which would be headed ‘first South Asian Cricket Academy graduate to score a professional red ball hundred’ – is remarkable. Kashmir-born, he played only tape-ball cricket until his family moved to Luton. There, aged 10, he graduated to wind-ball games at the local park.
The road from Dunstable to Worcester? Winding and long. Ali played National Counties cricket for Bedfordshire. He had a stint with the MCC Young Cricketers at Lord’s. Plenty of first-class counties peeked – Kent, Northamptonshire, and Essex amongst them. A trial here, another there. No contract, though.
To fund his cricketing nomadism, Ali worked warehouse nightshifts and delivered takeaways. A trialist’s life is not for everyone but Ali had few complaints, although admittedly, “It was very tricky to know what was actually going on. I didn’t know whether I was really getting looked at, or if I was there just filling numbers.”
Did he contemplate giving up? “That thought never came into my mind,” he responds. “I knew there would be something, someone, who would look at me and think ‘this guy can play’ and I’d get an opportunity. That was always in my head. There was no chance I was going to give up.”
In 2021, Ali entered the Kashmir Premier League. Rawalakot Hawks picked him up, and, under Shahid Afridi’s captaincy, he flourished. Having bludgeoned 114* off just 51 balls in the Eliminator, Ali helped his team win the final with 54 from 29. The opposition attack contained five Pakistan internationals.
During the tournament, Tom Brown, SACA’s founder, had – prompted by Worcestershire coach Kadeer Ali – called extending an invitation. Ali touched down, napped in the changing room, and made a debut half-century for SACA from No.9.
That winter, Ali trained with the Pears.
