Mansoor Amjad (, ), born 14 December 1987, is a Pakistani cricketer who plays for the

Pakistan national cricket team The Pakistan national cricket team or Pak cricket team, often referred to as the Shaheens (), Green Shirts, Men in Green and Cornered Tigers is administered by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The team is a Full Member of the International ...

and Leicestershire County Cricket Club in

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 ...

. His father, mother, and other family members supported him throughout his career, encouraging him to play

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

. Amjad first played tape-ball cricket in the street as a child, and was known in his hometown as a bat and ball boy. He played cricket at an early age for the Saga sports cricket club, and began playing seriously in 1998–99 when he attended a Habib Bank mobile camp in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

. Amjad began as a

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler, and later developed his batting skills as a right-hand batsman. In 2000, Amjad was selected for the under-15 camp.

Early career

In 2001, Amjad was selected for the Pakistan Junior cricket academy in Lahore. The following year, he was selected for the first international Pakistan U-15; Pakistan won their first-ever junior U-15 Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi. Amjad was the Man of the Match in his first U-15 match against Oman, taking five wickets for 17 runs. He was selected for the 2003 Pakistan Academy tour of South Africa, taking 11 wickets in four matches. Pakistan won the Videocon Asian Emerging Trophy that year, and Amjad was a member of the squad who defeated Sri Lanka in the final. He was a member of Pakistan's 2004 Under-19 Cricket World Cup squad, playing eight matches and taking 16 wickets. Amjad was Man of the Match 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 ...

, taking four wickets for 27 runs. He set under-19 records for best average and

economy rate In cricket, a bowler's economy rate is the average number of runs they have conceded per over bowled. In most circumstances, the lower the economy rate is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare b ...

which stood for almost 13 years.

International career

In 2005, the

Australia A cricket team The Australia A cricket team is a cricket team representing Australia and is the second team of the Australian cricket team. In the Australian summer of 1994–95, the (then) Benson and Hedges World Series Cup was expanded to involve four teams ...

visited Pakistan; Amjad played two matches and took five wickets. He played a Pakistan Cricket Board side match for the Green team after Australia's tour, taking two wickets and scoring 29 runs. Amjad played a side match for Pakistan A against

that year. Pakistan A won the EurAsia Cricket Series in Abu Dhabi against India the following year, and Amjad took four wickets; one was from

Rohit Sharma Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian international cricketer and the current captain of the Indian cricket team. Widely considered as one of the best opening batter of all time, he plays as a right-handed batsman for Mu ...

. Amjad was named the bowler of the tournament, with 12 wickets in five matches. He was part of the Leicestershire Foxes, who won England's

T20 Blast 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 ...

that year. Amjad played county cricket for Leicestershire in the summer of 2007, and was asked to join the Pakistan A team in August of that year to play Australia's A team in Pakistan. He was then chosen to play against South Africa, and was Pakistan's high scorer with 42 runs. Amjad's

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 ...

debut was in April 2008 against

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 ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

. Asked to bowl the sixteenth over, he took wickets on the second, fifth, and sixth balls for a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

and dismissed

Mahmudullah Mohammad Mahmudullah ( bn, মোহাম্মদ মাহমুদুল্লাহ; born 4 February 1986), also known as Riyad, is a Bangladeshi cricketer and former captain of the Bangladesh national cricket team in T20I. He has played ...

, Mashrafe Murtaza for an overall number of 1-0-3-3. In June 2008, Amjad made his One Day International debut in the Asia Cup; he took one

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

, conceding 44 runs in his allotted eight overs against Sri Lanka.

Foreign teams and leagues

Amjad signed his first overseas contract in 2006 with the Fleetwood Hesketh Cricket Club in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

, playing three matches and taking nine wickets. He signed with Leicestershire after he was recalled to Pakistan, playing for the Foxes through 2007.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amjad, Mansoor Leicestershire cricketers Pakistani cricketers Pakistan One Day International cricketers Pakistan Twenty20 International cricketers Sialkot cricketers Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited cricketers National Bank of Pakistan cricketers Sialkot Stallions cricketers Punjab (Pakistan) cricketers 1987 births Living people Cricketers from Sialkot Northern Knights cricketers Galle Cricket Club cricketers Murray College alumni