Sajid Iqbal Mahmood (

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: ساجد اقبال محمود, ''Sājid Iqbāl Maḥmūd''; born 21 December 1981) is a former English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, who played all formats of the game. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played international cricket for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Youth and early career

Mahmood's grandfather, Lal Khan Janjua, emigrated from

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

with his family in 1958. The family settled in Halliwell, a residential area of

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

. Mahmood was born in

, Greater Manchester on 21 December 1981, the son of Shahid Mahmood, and grew up with his family. He has a sister and two brothers and is first cousin to boxer Amir Khan. Khan is five years younger than Mahmood and the two cousins stay close, having grown up living near to each other. Mahmood began playing

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

in the Bolton Leagues, and played well enough to be signed by Lancashire in 2002. He made his debut for Lancashire in 2002 whilst on a scholarship with the club.

Breakthrough

He won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 2003; in the same year, he inadvertently broke the hands of Lancashire teammate

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 ...

and England A teammate

Alex Gidman Alexander Peter Richard Gidman (born 22 June 1981) is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who played for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire and Worcest ...

, an early indicator of his pace. In September 2003, Mahmood was one of England 14 cricketers selected to train with the England Cricket Board's

National Academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...

during the winter. Despite having taken only six first-class wickets, Mahmood was chosen for England A's tour to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

in 2003–04.

Return to the county circuit

In a

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

match against

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, Mahmood suffered a chest injury that threatened to prematurely end his 2008 season. On 26 November 2008, Mahmood was drafted into England's squad for the last two ODI matches against India in their seven match tour. He and bowler Amjad Khan were called up as replacements for the injured Stuart Broad and

. Mahmood and Khan were in Bangalore with England's Performance Programme Squad. The final two ODIs were cancelled after the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also referred to as 26/11 attacks, were a series of coordinated Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist o ...

and the England squad returned home due to safety concerns. Mahmood was part of the England Lions for the winter tour of New Zealand. While Khan debuted for England over the winter, Mahmood did not feature in any matches for the full England side. Despite this, he was selected in England's 25-man performance squad, and was identified by national selector Geoff Miller as being close to playing for England. Although he was part of England's 30-man preliminary squad for the

2009 ICC World Twenty20 The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 was the second edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20 that took place in England in June 2009. As before, the tournament featured 12 male teams – nine of the ten Test cricket, ...

, he did not make the final squad of 15. In April, Mahmood was selected to represent the England Lions against the West Indies. Despite being overlooked by England for the first Test of the summer, in May Mahmood secured his career-best bowling figures and his maiden 10-wicket haul. In a Lancashire victory over

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

by six wickets, Mahmood took 6/75 and finished with match figures of 10/140. Mahmood was one of several Lancashire bowlers unable to play in August 2009. He, Glen Chapple, Steven Cheetham, and Tom Smith were injured and Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson were on England duty. As a stop-gap measure, Tom Lungley was loaned by Lancashire from

Derbyshire County Cricket Club Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Falco ...

. After he finished the season with 41 first-class wickets at an average of 34.00, and 24 list A wickets at an average of 23.33, Mahmood was recalled to the England One Day International squad for their tour of South Africa in the winter of 2009. Mahmood joined

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

as an overseas player for the domestic T20 competition during the 2010–11 season. He played in five matches for them, taking five wickets at an average of 30.2. In June 2011, in a match against Durham, Mahmood took his second ten-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Mahmood attributed his bowling success in 2011 to being more focused on playing for Lancashire; he said that before he had been distracted by trying to earn selection for England and that he performs better when relaxed. In August 2012, after being dropped from the Lancashire side Mahmood joined injury depleted

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

until the end of the 2012 season. At the end of the season Mahmood was released by Lancashire. He then joined

for the 2013 English domestic season. Later in the 2013 season after an unsuccessful spell Sajid was dropped and was allowed to join Ainsdale CC in the LDCC league until the end of the season where he enjoyed a successful spell of wicket taking and confidence building. Sajid returned to the Essex squad for the 2014 season before being released.

International career

He made his

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

debut for England against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

in July 2004, but his seven overs proved expensive, conceding 56 runs without a wicket. More recently, he toured India with England in early 2006, playing in the third, sixth and seventh ODIs and taking several wickets. He was included in the

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) ...

squad against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in 2006 following injuries to

Steve Harmison Stephen James Harmison, (born 23 October 1978) is an English former first-class cricketer, who played all formats of the game. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODIs, and 2 T20s. He also played county cricket ...

, James Anderson and Simon Jones, and earned his first cap on 11 May 2006 in the first Test at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

, becoming England's 633rd Test player. England reached an imposing first-innings score of 551, and Mahmood took three wickets in his first four overs in Test cricket at the end of the second day, as the Sri Lankan team disintegrated to 91 for 6 at the close. He was unable to add to his tally before Sri Lanka were forced to follow on early on the third day, but added two further wickets in Sri Lanka's more composed second innings on the fourth day. Mahmood was replaced by Jon Lewis for the third Test against Sri Lanka. However, on 27 July 2006 he was selected ahead of Lewis for the second Test against

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

after Liam Plunkett was ruled out due to injury. Although the pitch at Old Trafford favoured seamers, Mahmood performed relatively poorly. However, he was retained for the Third Test at Headingley. He contributed 34 runs with the bat in England's first innings, but then went for 108 runs over 24 overs, albeit with two wickets, in a high-scoring Pakistan first innings. In the second innings, he took 4 wickets for only 22 runs in 8 overs, contributing significantly to England's series-clinching victory. He featured in the final match of the series, dubbed Ovalgate. He took 2–101 in Pakistan's first innings before the game was forfeited by Pakistan for refusing to take the field during England's second innings.

The Ashes 2006–07

Mahmood was selected for England's 2006–07 Ashes squad, but James Anderson was selected ahead of him for the first and second tests. For the third Test in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Mahmood and

Monty Panesar Mudhsuden Singh "Monty" Panesar (born 25 April 1982) is a former English international cricketer. A left-arm spinner, Panesar made his Test cricket debut in 2006 against India in Nagpur and One Day International debut for England in 2007. In ...

replaced Anderson and Ashley Giles. He featured sporadically in the test, bowling just 7 overs in

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

first innings and 10 in their second, taking no wickets. He later expressed his unhappiness about not bowling more during the test. Mahmood also played in the ODI match against Australia on 2 February 2007 in Sydney, taking 2

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

for 38 runs, and sharing the new ball with fellow

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

Liam Plunkett. He took the wicket of Brad Hodge by bowling him. He also took the wicket of destructive batsman

Matthew Hayden Matthew Lawrence Hayden (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer. His career spanned fifteen years. Hayden was a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman who, along with opening partners Ju ...

after Hayden had scored 51. Hayden hit the ball straight to

Jamie Dalrymple James William Murray Dalrymple (born 21 January 1981) is a Kenyan-born former English cricketer, who played ODIs and T20Is for England. He is a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler. He is perhaps best known for taking a spectacular diving ...

. He has appeared in a Bollywood film called

Victory The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...

2007 World Cup

After his successful performances in the Commonwealth Bank Series victory over Australia, Mahmood was shortlisted for the 15-man England squad for the

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 name is ...

. Although he wasn't selected for the first few matches, he came into the side against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Against

in the Super Eight stage he produced his best figures in an ODI match, taking the wickets of

Sanath Jayasuriya Deshabandu Sanath Teran Jayasuriya (, ; born 30 June 1969), is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, captain, cricket administrator and coach. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest all rounders ever to play in ODI cricket. A left arm orthodox sp ...

and

Kumar Sangakkara Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara (; born 27 October 1977) is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer who represented Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2015. A former captain in all formats. He was born in Matale, Central Province. In first-class cricke ...

in his spell of 4–50. After his successful bowling figures against Sri Lanka, he was picked for the match against Australia. Despite being England's most expensive bowler in that match, he was picked for the following match against Bangladesh, in which he took 3 wickets for 27 runs. England won and Mahmood was awarded

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

. Although Mahmood emphasised the work he put into improving his consistency in his two years out of the international squad, he was expensive on his come back and conceded 92 runs and took 2 wickets from the 7 overs he bowled in England's two Twenty20 Internationals against South Africa, and played in just one of the ODIs, in which he took 1/41.

Post-playing career

In 2016 Mahmood was director of a clothing company. Mahmood has coached at Roehampton and Fulham Cricket Club in South London, and as of September 2018, has been Head of Cricket at William Perkin Church of England High School in Greenford, Middlesex.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmood, Sajid 1981 births Living people Lancashire cricketers English cricketers England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2007 Cricket World Cup Cricketers from Bolton English people of Pakistani descent Sportspeople of Pakistani descent English people of Punjabi descent Lancashire Cricket Board cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Western Australia cricketers Somerset cricketers Essex cricketers British Asian cricketers NBC Denis Compton Award recipients