Amjad Khan (born 14 October 1980) is an international cricketer and barrister. Born in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, he represents the country of his birth in international cricket, while also playing a single

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

and

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 2009. In a county cricket career lasting over a decade, he played for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Early life

Khan was born in

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...

, a suburb of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. He is the son of Pakistani parents Aslam and Raisa, who immigrated to Denmark in the 1970s. He was educated at the . Khan took up cricket at the age of six and played his early cricket for

Kjøbenhavns Boldklub Kjøbenhavns Boldklub or KB is a Danish sports club based in Copenhagen. The club was founded 26 April 1876 on the grassy fields in outer Copenhagen which later became Fælledparken. Tennis has been played since 1883. The club hosted, in 1921, on ...

. As a teenager, he was regarded as one of the quickest bowlers in Denmark.

English county cricket

Khan was brought to the attention of

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

Ole Mortensen Ole Henrik Mortensen (born 29 January 1958) is a Danish first-class cricketer, probably the best his country has produced. A fast-medium right-arm bowler, in a first-class career with Derbyshire that ran from 1983 to 1994 he took 434 wickets at ...

, a friend and former teammate of Kent coach John Wright. In his first full season at

, in 2002, he claimed 63 wickets. He failed to regain his form for the next two seasons, taking a combined total of 31 wickets. In the seasons that followed, Khan performed better, taking 55 wickets in 2005 before recording 34 the season after, despite missing almost half of it through injury. In December 2006, Khan was awarded

British citizenship British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

, which made him eligible to be selected for England. It only took one month for the English selectors to recognise him, when they named him as part of a 14-man

England 'A' England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emer ...

squad to tour

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Subsequently, he was named in the 30-man

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

squad, although he was not selected in the final squad when it was halved to 15. At the end of February 2007, it was revealed that Khan had been ruled out for the entire 2007 season, after having surgery on his

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

s. However, following the 2008 season, Khan was named as one of the members of the "Development squad" of fringe players, to be sent to India as back-ups to the main England squad, because he had "impressed with his pace and swing". He gave away 16 runs in his first and only over during the

Twenty20 Cup The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

Semi-final, where

Marcus Trescothick Marcus Edward Trescothick (born 25 December 1975) is an English former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England in 76 Test matches and 123 One Day Internationals.2011 season replacing

Corey Collymore Corey Dalanelo Collymore (born 21 December 1977) is a former Barbadian cricketer, who represented the West Indies team in both Tests and ODIs cricket as seam bowler. Collymore also played for Barbados, Warwickshire, Sussex and Middlesex ...

On 20 March 2014, Sussex announced they had released Khan after his 2013 season was disrupted by injury.

International career

Early years with Denmark

Khan played for the Denmark under-19s at the 1998 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. He made his senior debut for Denmark at the age of 17, against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

at the 1998

European Cricket Championship The European Cricket Championship was a group of various tournaments in which national cricket sides throughout Europe competed. The competition was designed to encourage and develop the best players in countries where cricket was not a major sp ...

. He was the youngest national team player in Danish history. In his next game, against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, he took 3/34. At the

2001 ICC Trophy The 2001 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament played in Ontario, Canada in 2001. It was the Cricket World Cup qualification tournament for the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Three spots in the World Cup were on offer and the Netherlands, host nation Canada ...

, Khan took 16 wickets from nine matches with best figures of 3/11. He also scored 73 runs against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in the opening game of the tournament.

England

In November 2008, Khan was called up (along with

Sajid Mahmood Sajid Iqbal Mahmood (Urdu: ساجد اقبال محمود, ''Sājid Iqbāl Maḥmūd''; born 21 December 1981) is a former English cricketer, who played all formats of the game. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played international cri ...

) to act as cover for

Stuart Broad Stuart may refer to: Names *Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Norther ...

and

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

during the

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

series in India. He never actually joined up with the one-day squad due to the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which forced the cancellation of the rest of the series. However, he was subsequently called up to the

squad in place of the injured

Ryan Sidebottom Ryan Jay Sidebottom (born 15 January 1978) is a former England international cricketer who played domestic cricket for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire and retired in 2017 after taking more than 1,000 career wickets. He is the only player in the ...

for the two-match series that followed. On 18 February 2009, Khan, along with

Ravi Bopara Ravinder Singh Bopara (born 4 May 1985) is an English cricketer who plays for Sussex County Cricket Club in one day cricket. Originally a top-order batsman, his developing medium pace bowling has made him a batting all rounder in the one day ...

, was invited to join the England Test squad on their tour of the West Indies as cover for Andrew Flintoff who was struggling with a hip injury. Khan played in his only Test in the fifth Test against the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

on 6 March 2009. His first over consisted of 9 balls, which included 3 no-balls, costing 7 runs. Khan took his only Test wicket early on the third day of the Test, trapping in-form batsman

Ramnaresh Sarwan Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan (born 23 June 1980) is a cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin who played as a batsman. He is a former member and former captain of the West Indies cricket team, in all formats. Sarwan went on to average over 40 in both the ...

LBW. He was reprimanded by the match referee for excessive appealing. When it was announced that fast-bowler Ryan Sidebottom would be unable to play in the ODIs or T20s following the Test series because of a recurring injury, Khan was named as his replacement.

Return to Denmark

Khan returned to play for Denmark at the

2014 ICC World Cricket League Division Four The 2014 ICC World Cricket League Division Four was a cricket tournament which took place from 21 June to 28 June 2014. It formed part of the ICC World Cricket League and qualification for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Singapore hosted the event. ...

in Singapore. Khan captained Denmark in the 2016 ICC World Cricket League Division Four in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, after team captain Michael Pedersen left the tournament to attend to a family emergency. In October 2021, he was named in Denmark's T20I squad for the Regional Final of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier tournament. He made his T20I debut for Denmark on 15 October 2021 against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. This came over 12 years after his sole T20I appearance for England in 2009, setting a new record for the longest gap between T20I appearances. However, his record was surpassed by Bermuda's Kyle Hodsoll the following month.

Legal career

Khan is a barrister and in 2022 represented former cricket

Jahid Ahmed Jahid Sheikh Ahmed ( bn, জাহিদ শেখ আহমেদ; born 20 February 1986) is an English former first-class cricketer. He played as a right-handed lower order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. Personal life Ahmed a ...

in his case against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Amjad English cricketers Danish cricketers England Test cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Denmark Twenty20 International cricketers Kent cricketers 1980 births Living people Danish emigrants to the United Kingdom Danish people of Pakistani descent British people of Pakistani descent British Asian cricketers Sussex cricketers Sportspeople from Copenhagen Dual international cricketers Danish cricket captains Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom NBC Denis Compton Award recipients