Mushtaq to ring five-minute bell at Lord’s

KARACHI: The spotlight will be on a Pakistan cricket team member just before the start of their opening Test against England at Lord’s on Thursday (today).

And it won’t be fast bowler Mohammad Amir. Before the tourists take the field, it would be their assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed who will be in the limelight as he will ring the bell to signal five minutes before the start of play on day one of the series opener.

The leggie played 52 Tests and 144 ODIs for Pakistan in a 15-year international career.

He took 185 wickets at an average of 32.97 in Test matches, and 161 wickets at 33.29 in ODI cricket, often forming a formidable spin-bowling partnership with Saqlain Mushtaq.

He appears on the Lord’s Honours board once, having taken 5-57 in Pakistan’s 164-run over England in 1996.

A popular figure wherever he played, Mushtaq also had a highly successful stint in county cricket with Somerset and Sussex, winning three County Championship titles with the latter in the 2000s.

Following his retirement, he worked as England’s spin bowling coach during their successful rise to number one in the ICC World Test rankings.

The ringing of the five-minute bell at Lord’s by an international cricketer, administrator or well-known enthusiast of the sport is a recent tradition introduced in 2007.

The bell, which is located outside the Bowlers’ Bar of the Lord’s Pavilion, is rung to signify the imminent start of play, and it has become a great honour to be invited to ring it on the morning of a Test match.