“Yes, this is true,” says Mohammad Abbas, matter-of-factly, during a chat at Trent Bridge. The question concerns the time Manchester City supposedly asked for Pep Guardiola to be billeted in the penthouse at Hampshire’s on-site hotel before a match in Southampton – only to be told a more important guest was in town.
“I didn’t know about it at the time but our head coach told me the next morning that he had wanted my room,” Abbas says of Guardiola. “The Hilton emailed the Hampshire management to ask if it was possible but they were told no, I would be spending six months there. So that was what happened.”
It is a cool story and in fairness, Abbas did plenty to deserve VIP status at the club. Over the course of four seasons he finessed 180 wickets at 19.26 runs apiece which, following 79 at a similar average for Leicestershire, cemented his claim to be one of – if not the – leading exponents of seam-up in the County Championship. Abbas in full flow is a bit like a Guardiola team: Swiss clock accuracy allied with Swiss army knife skills.
The numbers and the excellence of execution made Hampshire’s decision to release Abbas last winter a surprise one, withNottinghamshire– his intended destination in 2020 before Covid intervened – quick to snap up the 35-year-old on a six-match deal. This prompted speculation as to whether Hampshire’s new owners, India’s GMR Group, did not want a Pakistani cricketer on their books but Abbas is having none of it.
“No, that’s not why,” says Abbas, fresh from giving Haseeb Hameed, his new captain, a workout in the nets before his first outing against his former employers. “James Vince had stopped playing four-day cricket and they said they needed a batter for an overseas player; so a bit of a restructure. We had good communication around it and they are good people. Still they are messaging me and I am messaging them. They are fantastic.”
We could go deeper on India-Pakistan cricket relations in a week when the fallout from the Pahalgam terrorist attack has escalated dramatically. But it is a highly sensitive topic and Abbas, it soon transpires after a question about having not played since March, is still coping with tragic news of his own back home.
“The last three months have been very hard for my family,” he says. “Both my brother and sister passed away, so I took a break. My sister was married last June and passed because of [complications with her] pregnancy. My brother was a kidney patient for the past year. We had a plan for his transplant but he passed away just before Eid.”
Abbas says his family’s pain is starting to settle and he wants to be professional for his new team. Playing in the East Midlands, with its large Pakistani community, is another source of comfort, while there is also a joke that staying in Pakistan much longer would not have been good for his fitness. “Too much fatty food,” he says with a smile. “When you go to meet your relatives, they are just inviting you to eat these things.”
Though into his mid-30s, Abbas is a remarkably lithe and durable bowler, such that he is laser focused on playing for a good while yet. Given his county exploits and eight wickets to set up a memorableTest win at Lord’s in 2018, Pakistan’s series in England next summer is, unsurprisingly, a target.
Abbas, though, pushes back at the notion of being a Dukes ball or even red-ball specialist, insisting he is a bowler for all surfaces, all formats. Here he begins reeling off his own figures to back it up, bringing to mind another meticulous overseas pro for Nottinghamshire in Sir Richard Hadlee.
First come his 775 first-class wickets at just a tick over 20, before a reminder of the challenging surfaces at home on which more than half off those have come. Then comes the Test bowling average of 23.18 that, of the 20 Pakistanis to take 100 or more Test wickets, is second only to Imran Khan. “I am always fighting myself,” he says, when asked about his motivations. “I’m always trying to beat my career best things.”
The question here is why Abbas, on exactly 100 Test wickets and a domestic great, has not won more than his 27 caps. “It is hard, as a human being,” he says. “But unfortunately our management, coaches and captains change every six months or year. I don’t know about the mindset of these guys but maybe they wanted to give a chance to youngsters. Also, we do not play enough Test matches. That is the main problem.”
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Another factor in recent times is the surfaces Pakistan have been preparing for Test cricket, with their 2-1 series victory against England last October achieved via bespoke rank turners on which the spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali shared 39 wickets in two outings. After a three-year hiatus, Abbas returned to play the two Tests in South Africa that followed, nipping out 10 wickets with the Kookaburra ball and showing remarkable endurance, only to be overlooked at home to West Indies three weeks later.
“Most teams are looking for home advantage,” Abbas says. “But I think this [approach] is not good for the future of fast bowling in Pakistan. I think the coaching staff is going to change again soon. I don’t know what they have planned for the next year.”
Another suspicion is that pace has been a factor, with Abbas typically operating in the low 80s on the speed gun and chiefly outskilling his opponents. It brings us on to the subject of Sam Cook, a similar medium-fast “nip” bowler who is poised to make his England debut this month and buck something of a trend towards the quicker men.
Abbas says: “My advice is just to bowl the same as he does in county cricket, to stay calm, keep to his basics and confidence will grow. The most important thing is to know who you are as a bowler and not try to be something you are not.”
Coming from a bowler so celebrated he once denied Manchester City’s manager a penthouse suite, it feels like a pep talk worth listening to.