Moeen by Moeen Ali

Hi again dear readers

It should be noted that I am a massive cricket fan, not just a cricket fan but I am also a qualified cricket umpire. I frequently spend my British Summer Saturdays off around the villages of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire umpiring cricket matches in a local league where I get to see some fantastic countryside, amazing wildlife, and some very tasty teas !! I also love going to watch cricket matches whenever I get the chance and for me the test match format is still the best.

Now a number of regular blog readers don't come from a cricketing nation (lets be honest, there is only a few namely, us, Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, The West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangledesh) may be wondering what the heck cricket is ?? Well it is a sport that inspired baseball, is far move civilised than baseball and arguably for most, a lot more interesting than baseball !! In fact its a very posh version of baseball and comes in many variations that last from between 4 hours (T20) and 5 days (a Test match) for a match !!

Cricket has provided us over the years with a significant number of very famous people with Ian Botham, Sir Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Shane Warne and Dickie Bird to name but a few. The list is endless of famous cricketers over the years and whenever I see a book by a cricketer I tend to as a minimum have a browse of it in a book shop and for the really good ones, I tend to actually buy them in hard back form so that they can form part of my home furniture.

So Moeen by Moeen Ali, what is it about and who actually is Moeen ?? Moeen to many cricket fans is known as 'The Beard to be Feared'. Fans of England and Worcestershire often chant his nickname when he plays as he has become known as a good all rounder (he bowls spin and bats a bit !) and is a bit of a character. His book starts to tells us about the up bringing of his family which in itself is actually quite interesting, with his Grandfather born in Kashmir but he came to England where he married an English woman called Betty, who converted to Islam. Him and Betty had a number of children including Moeen's father and all once born and old enough were educated in Pakistan before returning to the UK to carry on their up bringing. Betty and Moeen's grandfather sadly however split with the cultural differences eventually forcing them apart, however they still showed their love for each other and cared for their children and grandchildren.

Moeen's father was a lover of the game of cricket but despite his family being Pakistani, his interest in the sport was frowned upon and he was encouraged to pursue a proper career. A good local club player in the Birmingham area where he lived and worked, Moeen's father decided that when he had children of his own, he would look to encourage them along with his brother to play and follow cricket. Born in the late 80s with his twin brother in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham, Moeen and his brothers and cousins took to cricket at the encouragement of their fathers and of all, Moeen showed the most potential scoring 195 not out as a 12 year old.

As Moeen developed both he and his father found it hard for him to move on in cricket due to the attitudes of the stiff upper lipped English cricket boards who for some reason continued to overlook talented players from ethnic backgrounds. To force his way into the upper echelons of cricket, Moeen moved County (team) from Warwickshire to Worcestershire and broke into the first team as a good batsman and spin bowler, regularly amongst the runs and frequently taking wickets.

His auto biography goes on to talk about his desire to play for England and the challenges he faced to break into the team, not knowing what else he could do to be selected. Eventually at age 27 his debut came belatedly and his impact was impressive and he consistently scored runs and took wickets for his country.

Once we get through his early years and the troubles of breaking into the England team, the book does turn into a bit of a typical cricketers auto biography where Moeen talks about his tours, scores and wicket hauls as a test cricketer, with his hatrick at the Oval being his pinnacle. Since the book was written, Moeen has continued to score runs and take wickets and I am sure he will remain a key player for England in all forms of the sport for a good few years to come.

So ‘Moeen’ I admit may not appeal to all of my blog readers but, if you are a cricket fan I can highly recommend downloading it onto your kindle to read beside the pool as you cruise around the Caribbean this winter.  If you aren’t fortunate enough to cruise then maybe get a read of this in between the Sri Lanka v England test series. Finally if you know nothing about cricket and you are curious then why not give it a try, you never know you may just start to follow the sport. For me ‘Moeen’ by Moeen Ali is a solid 6 out of 10 read.

Moeen doesn’t have a specific website for his book, but to find out more about his career and cricket in general try http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/8917.html

As ever feel free to leave a comment on this review on my blog and Happy Reading 😊

Canberralover