Cricket Players Biography

Friday 23 December 2011

Inzamam-ul-Haq

Inzamam-Ul-Haq Biography

Inzamam-ul-Haq (born 3 March 1970) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is considered to be one of Pakistan’s best batsmen.He is currently the captain of the Pakistani team.Test Debut: Pakistan v England at Birmingham, 1st Test, 1992. His career highlights are:

Scoring 60 in 37 balls against New Zealand in the semifinal of the 1992 World Cup to win the match that was nearly lost.
Scoring 329 against New Zealand in Lahore during a Test in the 2001-02 season (the twelfth highest score by a batsman)
Scoring 138* to deny Bangladesh victory at Multan.
Becoming the second batsman to score 10,000 runs in one-day inernationals (behind Sachin Tendulkar)
Scoring 184 in his 100th Test, against India at Bangalore in 2005.

Inzamam ul-Haq is well-known for his poor running between the wickets (as of May 2005, he has been run out a record 38 times in one-day internationals) and his ability to play shots around the ground. He has been described as looking “like a passenger in the field”.

He averages just over 50 runs per innings in tests and nearly 40 runs in one-day internationals with a strike rate of 53.65 and 74.20 respectively (figures current as of May 2004). He is called the best batsmen in the world against pace by Imran Khan. Inzamam is a giant that has a very soft touch for a man of his bulk. He usually bats at number three with his sidekick Yousuf Youhana.

He plays shots all round the wicket, is especially strong off his legs, and unleashes ferocious pulls and lofted drives.

Inzamam-Ul-Haq

Inzamam-ul-Haq 100 vs INDIA 2004 Karachi

Inzamam Ul Haq 123 vs India 2004

Lance Klusener

Lance Klusener Biography

Lance Klusener (born 4 September 1971 in Durban, South Africa) is a cricketer, more specifically an all-rounder. He is known for his aggressive batting and his fast-medium swing bowling. He is nicknamed \"Zulu\" because of his fluency in that language. Following his exploits at the 1999 World Cup, he topped the ICC ODI Batting rankings. His peak rating put him 28th on the ICC all-time ODI Batting rankings. His career average of 41.1 in ODI cricket, combined with his strike rate of 89.9 make him one of the the most dangerous batsmen to ever play the game. Klusener made his Test match debut for South Africa against India in Calcutta during the second Test in 1996/97. Klusener, at the time playing primarily as a bowler, took some fearful hammering at the hands of Mohammad Azharuddin, who at one point hit him for five consecutive fours, in his first innings of his debut but returned career best figures of eight for 64 in the second. Klusener will be remembered mainly for his contributions in One Day Internationals, in which he became feared as a hard hitting batsman and was voted as Man of the Tournament during the 1999 World Cup. He was also voted as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2000. His international career has tapered off since then, due mainly to persistent ankle injuries, as well as a public dispute with the current South African captain Graeme Smith, who at a breakfast meeting shortly after his appointment to the captaincy described Klusener as a \"disruptive force\" to the younger players within the South African national cricket team, with the quote ending up in the South African press. However it seems that Klusener and Smith have patched up their differences.Klusener plays for Kwazulu-Natal (Nashua Dolphins) in the domestic level in South Africa. In 2003 Northamptonshire County Cricket Club signed him on a contract running until late 2007. So far at Wantage Road he has impressed with his fired-up seam bowling and his hard-hitting in the low middle-order. Due to family beareavments back home, it has been announced that his contract with the county will not be renewed at the end of the 2007 season. In late 2007, he started playing in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 tournament in India for the Kolkata Tigers team. Klusener's batting averages are particularly notable for the peculiar fact that his ODI average is considerably higher than his Test average. This is a fair reflection of his aggressive temperament.

Lance Klusener

Lance Klusener - The Destroyer

Lance Klusener 5 wickets vs Australia MCG 97/98

Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden Biography

Matthew Hayden born on October 29 1971 in Kingaroy, Queensland. He is a former Australian internationals and former opening batsman in the Australian national team. Matthew Hayden made his test debut in May 19, 1993 against England in Manchester. By April 1994 he was regularly used in ODI matches. He started test cricket career in March 1994 against South Africa in Johannesburg. He was only sporadically used in testing, since it often as a hitter retired early. It was not until 2000, he succeeded in a One-Day International match against New Zealand's breakthrough. After he scored in a tournament against India in 2001 an average of 109.80 points, reminiscent of cricket legend Donald Bradman, he was an integral part of the team. Matthew Hayden was also member of World Cup 2003 & 2007 Winning Team. Matthew Hayden retired from international cricket early 2009.
- In October 2003 Matthew Hayden reached 380 runs against Zimbabwe with the highest at this time in a number of runs scored innings. The 2004 record was broken by Brian Lara with 400 runs.

- In February 2007, Hayden in the one-day cricket against New Zealand 181 runs not out. This score is 2nd highest number of runs in an innings in the One-day cricket for the Australian team.

- Along with Justin Langer were one of the most successful opening pairs batsmanów in the history of cricket.

Matthew Hayden

IPL 2009: Fastest 50, Mathew Hayden

Matthew Hayden bowling the last over for Australia Fans XI vs ACA All Stars

Brett Lee

Brett Lee Biography

Brett Lee was born 8 November 1976 in Wollongong, New South Wales and is an Australian cricketer. He is an express bowler, one of the fastest the game has known, and is capable of bowling at 160 km/h (100 mph). Lee's fastest recorded delivery to date is 160.8 km/h (99.9 mph) which he bowled in his first over on March 5, 2005 at Napier, New Zealand against Craig Cumming.

He is also an athletic fielder and aggressive lower-order batsman; his batting ability and statistics (1,000 test runs at an average generally in excess of 20) lead many observers to regard him as a potential all-rounder. A natural and spirited athlete, Lee ranks as the fastest bowler in contemporary cricket.

Lee's speed allows opposition batsmen less time to react, increasing their chances of a making a mistake. Like Shoaib, his galloping run, from a long approach, and explosive delivery are among the most exciting sights in international sport.

Brett Lee is the second of three children born to Bob Lee, a Metallurgist and Helen Lee, a Piano Teacher. He has two brothers, the elder being former Australian all rounder and New South Wales Blues captain Shane Lee and the younger being Grant, now an accountant and concert pianist, who played cricket for New South Wales at the under-19 level.

Lee attended Balarang Public School and Oak Flats High School, which later named its cricket ground in his honour. His nickname 'Bing' came about when friends started referring to him as 'Bing Lee', after a chain of electronics stores in New South Wales. During the school holidays, the young Lee brothers enjoyed soccer, basketball and skiing and were encouraged to play the piano by their mother.

Brett Lee was introduced to the game of cricket at the tender age of eight by his brother Shane and showed an instant talent for it. He played his first 'actual' game of cricket for the Oak Flats Rats where he took 6/0 from one over or 6 wickets for 0 runs, all of his wickets being bowled. At sixteen years of age, Lee began playing first grade cricket for Campbelltown, where he managed to claim the wickets of a few New South Wales cricketers. He later joined Mosman, where at one point, he shared the new ball with pace rival Shoaib Akhtar. Lee also played for the Australian Under 17 & 19 teams along the likes of future Test team-mates Jason Gillespie and Mike Hussey. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the Australian Cricket Academy with Simon Katich and Brad Haddin.

In March 1994, Lee was selected in the Australian under-19 team to tour India but soon after he was forced out of the cricket scene due to stress fractures in his lower back. However, this did not deter him from achieving his cricket aspirations. He made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield match as a 20-year old in the 1997–98 season and quickly made an impression with his speed and hostility as a bowler. One month later, Lee was chosen to represent the Australian A team on a tour to South Africa. He claimed two wickets but in that very match, stress fractures in his back from the previous injury had re-opened and Lee was in a back brace for over three months. He then returned to work at Barclay's menswear as a suit salesman where he had gained employment six months earlier.

When he turned twenty-one, Lee moved to Sydney to be closer to work and he shared a flat with former New South Wales cricketer, Rod Davison. In 1999, during a Sheffield Shield match at Perth, Lee had launched an astonishing onslaught on the Western Australian batsmen, the fastest bowling seen in Australia since the days of Jeff Thomson back in the 1970s. He broke Jo Angel's arm. From that point, Australian captain Steve Waugh and then vice-captain Shane Warne began pushing for Lee's inclusion in the Test team.

During the 1999 cricket season, Lee was named in the 12-man squad against Pakistan but was not chosen in the final eleven. It was not until the Boxing Day test against India of that season did Lee finally debut, exploding on to the scene with a five wicket haul, indicating his intention to become a main-stay in the Austalian test side and leader of the bowling attack.

Brett Lee

Brett Lee Hattrick

brett lee the speedstar

Zaheer Abbas

Zaheer Abbas Biography

Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani (Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی) (born 24 July 1947) is a former Pakistani cricketer regarded as one of the finest batsmen produced by that country. Zaheer played his first Test in 1969, and in his very second Test he scored 274 against England, still the fourth ever highest score by a Pakistani batsman. This was the first of four double-centuries Abbas made; only six men have scored more. Abbas, fondly called the 'Run Machine', also had great success in first-class cricket, and is the only Asian batsman to have scored one hundred first class centuries. . He also had a long stint with Gloucestershire; joining the county in 1972, he remained there for thirteen years. During that time he scored over a thousand runs in the majority of his thirteen seasons. He also made over two thousand runs in a single season on two occasions for the club (1976 and 1981). During those thirteen years at Gloucestershire he played 206 First Class games, scoring over 16,000 runs. He averaged 49.79, hitting 49 100s and 76 50s. Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian Test captain, has said while commentating that the Indian players would often say to Zaheer, \"Zaheer Ab-bas karo\", which means \"Zaheer, stop it now\" in Urdu and Hindi, referring to Abbas' free scoring. He remains the second highest on the all-time ICC ODI batting rankings. Zaheer retired from international cricket in 1985, and has officiated as a match referee in one Test and three ODI matches. Zaheer is known in Pakistan as the \"Asian Bradman\", a reference to former Australian great Sir Donald Bradman

Zaheer Abbas

Zaheer Abbas 274 vs England 1st test 1971

Zaheer Abbas 186 vs India 2nd test 1982/83 Karachi

Muhammad Yousuf

Mohammad Yousuf Biography

Muhammad Yousuf (formerly Yousuf Youhana, born 27 August 1974, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) is a Pakistani cricketer who has been a member of the Pakistani national cricket team since 1998. He is best known for his achievement in 2006 when he broke the great West Indian batsman, Sir Vivian Richards', world record for the most Test runs in a single calendar year. Prior to his conversion to Islam in 2005, Yousuf was one of the few Christians to play in the Pakistan national cricket team. He made his Test debut against South Africa at Durban and ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Harare. He has scored over 9,000 ODI runs at an average of 43.63 (2rd highest batting average among Pakistani batsmen after Zaheer Abbas and 6,770 Test runs at an average of 55.49 (highest batting average amongst all Pakistani batsmen) with 23 Test centuries. He has the record of scoring the most runs without being dismissed in ODIs, 405 against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in 2002-03. He has also scored a 23-ball fifty in ODIs, and a 68-ball hundred. In Tests he has scored a 27-ball fifty, which is 3rd fastest by any player. He was top scorer during the successive years of 2002 and 2003 in the world in ODIs. In 2004, he scored a memorable 111 against the Australians in the Boxing Day Test. In December 2005, he scored 223 against England at Lahore, also earning him the man of the match award. Seven months later in July 2006, when Pakistan toured England, he scored 202 and 48 in the first Test, again earning himself the man of the match award. He followed up with 192 in the third Test at Headingley and 128 in the final Test at the Oval. Yousuf was named Cricketer of the Year for 2006, ahead of the likes of Australian captain Ricky Ponting, West Indies Brian Lara, Australian spinner Shane Warne, South Africas bowling spearhead Makhaya Ntini and Sri Lankas Muttiah Muralitharan. He was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 2007 edition. Yousuf became the fourth recipient of the ICC 'Test Cricketer of the Year' award for 2007, he scored 944 runs at an average of 94.40 including five centuries and two fifties in just 10 innings and that was enough to be awarded the honour ahead of Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting. Yousuf was also named in the 2007 Test team of the Year alongside compatriot Mohammad Asif. A year that started on a promising note, Yousuf carried it forward to break two world records both held earlier by West Indian great Sir Vivian Richards. The 32-year-old smashed an unparalleled 1788 runs in just 11 Test matches with the help of nine centuries his second record taking him beyond the Windies great yet again. Yousuf is known for his ability to score runs at exceptional rate through his great technique and composed strokeplay. Although capable of hitting the ball hard, Yousuf is quick between the wickets, although he is prone to being run out. Yousuf is a skillful infielder, with a report prepared in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the ninth highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman. He is also distinguished by his characteristic celebration after hitting one hundred runs for his country, where he prostrates in thankfulness to Allah in the direction of Mecca. He has observed this act (known as the Sajdah) recently since his conversion to Islam.

Muhammad Yousuf

Muhammad Yousuf Bowling

Yousuf Six to Bhajji

Abdul Razzaq

Abdul Razzaq Biography

Abdul Razzaq was once rapid enough to open the bowling and remains composed enough to bat anywhere, though he is discovering that the lower-order suits him nicely. His bowling - the reason he was first noticed - is characterised by a galloping approach, accuracy, and reverse-swing. But it is his batting that is more likely to win matches. He boasts a prodigious array of strokes and is particularly strong driving through cover and mid-off off both front and back foot. He has two gears: block or blast. Cut off the big shots and Razzaq gets bogged down, although patience is his virtue as he demonstrated in a match-saving fifty against India in Mohali in 2005. Just prior to that he had also played a bewilderingly slow innings in Australia, scoring four runs in over two hours. When the occasion demands it though, as ODIs often do, he can still slog with the best of them: England were pillaged for a 22-ball 51 at the end of 2005. and then again for nearly 60 runs in the last three overs of an ODI in September the following year.

It has hardly been smooth sailing though through his career. He suffered a slump, particularly in his bowling, between 2002 and 2004 when, though his place in the team wasn't under threat, there was uncertainty over how best to use him. But there were signs he was rediscovering some of his old guile if not his pace and nip. And if the pitch is in anyway helpful to seam - as it was in his first and only Test five-wicket haul at Karachi in 2004 or against India at the same venue in January 2006 - he can be a proper danger. Though Kamran Akmal's hundred overshadowed all in the Karachi win over India, Razzaq's performance was easily his most emphatic as an allrounder: he scored 45 and 90 as well as taking seven wickets in the match. A combination of injuries and poor form put his Test place into question and a knee injury days before the 2007 World Cup meant Pakistan missed his presence in a disastrous campaign.

A lackluster comeback to international cricket against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi and mediocre performance in the practice matches saw Razzaq being omitted from the 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship and consequently announce his retirement from international cricket. He then went on to sign for Worcestershire towards the end of the county season as well as signing up with the Indian Cricket League, which ruled him out of Pakistan contention. He took back his decision to retire but committed himself to the ICL for two seasons, during which he served the Hyderabad Heroes as one of their star players.

After a global amnesty and quitting the ICL, he was welcomed back to the Pakistan fold for the World Twenty20 in England and made an immediate impact as Pakistan won the tournament. His Test comeback also looked set to be complete after he was included in Pakistan's 15-man squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in June. Early in his career he promised to be Pakistan's most complete allrounder since Imran Khan, and though for a variety of reasons he hasn't translated that into achievement, his country wouldn't mind having just a very solid allrounder.

Abdul Razzaq

5 Fours by Abdul Razzaq vs McGrath in one over

Great Performance Of Abdul Razzaq Vs South Africa In Dubai 31th Oct 2010