4 December 2002
For those of us fortunate enough to have been present at Anglesea Road on July 27th last season the one-man performance of Nazeer Shaukat will remain in the memory for many a year. There was a real feeling of confidence within Merrion that this was to be the year they would finally capture the Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup. Having beaten Cliftonville and Lisburn in the previous rounds, Rush faced Merrion in the knowledge that a big performance was needed from their Pakistan all rounder. Scoring 122 off 128 balls, and following this with the figures of 12-1-26-4, Rush progressed to the semi-finals and made the most of home advantage to beat Downpatrick and reach the All Ireland Final. Not bad for a club that up to this year had never won a game in the history of this competition.
Surprisingly, the above performance does not rate as his best achievement in his 8 seasons playing in Leinster cricket. Ask him about his second season (1986) playing in Ireland and he is quick to recall his achievements. "Without a doubt, this was the period I was playing my best cricket. I took 72 wickets and scored over 900 runs along with helping Rush win promotion to the Section A Leinster Senior League".
Faisalabad in Pakistan is where Nazeer grew up and first started playing when joining the National Gym-Khana Cricket Club. Progressing through the youth sides it was clear he had a natural talent for the game and made his way into the clubs senior squad at the age of 16.
Nazeer's first-class career lasted from 1985 to 1998 while playing for Faisalabad where he also was given the honour of captaining his city during his final three playing seasons. Internationals Waisim Haider, Mohammad Ramzan and Inzaman Ul Haq all played under him with 4-day games being played against other cities including Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, etc. Added to this, he also took part in the Quaid-E-Azam Trophy, another form of Pakistan first-class cricket, where players represent their departments or associations. Nazeer played for WAPDA (Water & Power) with many Pakastani Banks and Airlines making up the other sides in the competition.
As well as playing in Pakistan, in recent years Nazeer has also spent several seasons both in Bangladesh and the UAE. He remembers the standard of the club game in Bangladesh being of a particularly high standard with international stars like Tikolo, Tendulkar, Jadeja, Jayasuriya and Ranatunga brought in to increase the profile and playing levels of the club game.
Nazeer's favourite grounds include the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad along with the Gaddafi Stadium at Lahore. The best players he can remember playing against include Inzaman and Saeed Anwar. Asked about players in the Leinster league he quickly mentions Jeremy Bray, Andre Botha and Brad Spanner but has no doubt that the finest batsman he has come across here is former Ireland captain Angus Dunlop. "We have had many battles out in the middle and although I have got him out on several occasions I could safely say he is the one batsman I don't particularly like bowling to". Many of the schoolchildren around Rush would agree when witnessing one of the biggest sixes seen at the ground when Dunlop dispatched Naz many a house back into Kenure Park during a league game last July.
Naz is quick to pay compliments to the improving standard of the Leinster league, its up-and -coming young players and in the general standard of the wickets. He is of the view that the levels of coaching in the province are quite high and attributes this to the Coach Education courses run in the province (Nazeer plans to sit the ECB Level 2 exam following gaining his Level 1 here in 2001) along with the availability of the excellent ECB coaching manuals. He is of the view that most of the Pakistani players get to play International cricket through their own natural talent, pointing out that when he was growing up in Faisalabad the standard of coaching was quite average. Much of his success is attributed to his older brother Tanveer, and also left arm seamer Waqar Khan who helped with his bowling in the early years.
Many of his Pakistani friends now play in Northern Ireland and he enjoys their company when time permits during the summer months. Ijaz Ahmed Jnr, Shabbir Ahmed, Azhar Shiffique, Tamoor Ahmad, Wasti are all good friends as well as his team-mate at Rush, Saadat Gul. Former Cliftonville and YMCA player Kamal Merchant has now relocated to Texas in America.
It would be fair to say that Nazeer Shaukat has contributed much to Leinster cricket over the past 8 years. When asked to assist with Leinster under age coaching sessions he has always obliged. He is respected by all players in the league, club members and the umpires at their recent dinner presented him with the Dickie Spence LCU 'Fair Play' award for 2002. Now resident in North Dublin and working with An Post, don't bet against coming across Nazeer's rhythmical bowling action while playing for Ireland at some stage over the next two years.