By Saj
May 6 2004

The day I met Ijaz Ahmed for the first time. Ijaz who was an urthodox and unpredicatable batsman will be rememberd for some weird dismissals and some brutal assualts on bowling attacks. North Park in Darlington is your average small town park, quiet, picturesque, with well kept bowling greens, a bandstand, plenty of open space, swings, slides and other activities for children, a small putting green, tennis courts and a nice friendly laid back atmosphere.

However on Sunday afternoons in the height of summer, it became host to frenetic cricket matches involving myself, relatives of mine and anybody else who we could drag in off the street to make the numbers up.

Well what could one say about the wicket and outfield. Put it this way no protection for the body was ever enough, uneven, plenty of grass on the wicket and the chance of escaping injury was minimal. However we were bred tough, we would put on our gloves, one pad on the left leg for the right handers and vice versa for the lefties, some of us would put on thigh pads, but if you did you would be labelled a wimp. Helmets were stupidly never used and batting was basically a hazardous occupation on this wicket. Any pitch inspection from the ECB would have called these matches off !

Families walking their dogs on the other side of the park could be heard gasping as a huge hit from one of the batsmen whistled past their ears. It was tough cricket and the breeding ground for some good players. Intense rivalry was of course the order of the day and the cricket was played hard but fair. All on field incidents were forgotten at the end of the days play as we all sat down for an evening meal together – those were the days !

North Park is not the place one would have expected to see a Pakistani test cricketer, but in 1988 that is what happened. I remember the day as though it was yesterday. I was batting wearing just a Wills cap, trainers, one pad and a pair of gloves and shorts. I was using a CA bat which was far too heavy for me, but had a wonderful middle. I was facing my cousin Iffi who was a rather eccentric character and used to have a zigzag run up just to put the batsman off, but boy was he quick.

I looked to my left and there at the top of the bank stood a group of Asian men watching us “trying to kill each other” on this wicket. At first I did not recognise any of them, but as they started to approach two of them looked familiar. One was Jeetu, my dads friend for many years and who later amazingly became a minder to stars such as Shah Rukh Khan etc when they were in the UK doing shows, the other guy had a rather bouncy walk as though his legs were on springs and who when he came near me I recognised as Ijaz Ahmed.

Obviously all the lads who recognised him were awestruck and the game came to a standstill as we all approached Ijaz to shake his hand. He came across as a rather quiet and shy character who left Jeetu to do most of the talking. They were basically looking for my father to help in promoting Ijazs benefit match to be played later that summer. Ijaz had been playing for Redcar in the North Yorkshire and South Durham league and had been tormenting the local bowling attacks, this a season after he scored a fifty for Pakistan against England at Headingley.

Ijaz and co. stopped and talked with us for about 30 minutes and it became a mini coaching clinic for bowlers, fielders and batsman. Most of us were teenagers and it was tremendous that here we were in the local park being taught by a test cricketer. I cheekily offered Ijaz the bat and asked him if he wanted to face a few deliveries – he looked up and down the wicket and unsurprisingly did not fancy it. He laughed and just said that they were in a bit of a hurry – coward – haha!

Ijaz Ahmeds benefit match for which my father helped a great deal, including selling hundreds of raffle tickets, between a Pakistan XI including Wasim Akram and a World XI which included Phil Simmons, Clayton Lambert etc was a huge success. A good crowd enjoyed an excellent days cricket at Redcar CC and Ijaz deservedly made some good financial gains from the event.

Ijaz played a number of seasons in the NYSD league and broke plenty of records season after season playing for Redcar, Thornaby and Richmond. He also became quite a good family friend who would visit our house whenever his hectic schedule allowed him to. He also introduced my father and I to the Pakistan team when we travelled to Sharjah in 1991, an experience I will never forget. When the Pak team realised that we were frinds of Ijajs and had travelled from England to watch the team, we were greeted with tremendous warmth and hospitality from men of the calibre of Imran Khan.

Always careful with his diet, always very polite, always friendly and down to earth is how I will remember him.