Pakistan’s fast bowler, Mohammad Abbas, shared an interesting story from the past when he was in Hampshire, sharing that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was not given a hotel room.
Recently, he gave an interview to a British news outlet, where he shared the story of the Manchester Manager who requested for his room where he was staying.
“I didn’t know about it at the time but our head coach told me the next morning that he had wanted my room,” Abbas says of Guardiola. “The Hilton emailed the Hampshire management to ask if it was possible but they were told no, I would be spending six months there. So that was what happened.”
That’s really amazing story, but also he did great job to get a VIP status at the club. Mohammad Abbas had an impressive record while playing for Hampshire County Club over four seasons. He grabbed 180 wickets at an outstanding average of 19.28 during those seasons. But he was set free last winter. Currently, he is playing for Nottinghamshire in the ongoing County Cricket Championship.
Here raised many questions about his release from the club. Might be possible that the new owners, India’s GMR Group, don’t want to hire Pakistani players.
“No, that’s not why,” Abbas said. “James Vince had stopped playing four-day cricket and they said they needed a batter for an overseas player; so a bit of a restructure. We had good communication around it and they are good people. Still they are messaging me and I am messaging them. They are fantastic.”
He was also questioned about not playing since March, is he still managing with the sad news of coming back to his country.
“The last three months have been very hard for my family,” he says. “Both my brother and sister passed away, so I took a break. My sister was married last June and passed because of [complications with her] pregnancy. My brother was a kidney patient for the past year. We had a plan for his transplant but he passed away just before Eid.”
Abbas further said that his family has started to survive with the pain and coming back to normal life routine. Now he want to join his team as a professional player. He also played in the East Midlands, with its large Pakistani community, where had a jolly good time, also he said that while living in Pakistan for a long time, was not good for his overall health and fitness. “Too much fatty food,” he said in a jolly mood. “When you go to meet your relatives, they are just inviting you to eat these things.”
He has exceptional bowling performances, getting 775 first-class wickets at only average of just over 20, most of them were achieved at the tough and challenging home grounds. He has prominent average in Test cricket also, where is only behind Imran khan by getting more than 100 Test wickets at an average of 23.18. am always fighting myself,” he says, when asked about his motivations. “I’m always trying to beat my career best things.”
