Pakistani cricket players, fans, administrators and everyone else connected with Pakistan cricket have had very little to smile about over the last few years. The furrowed brows could be seen from Islamabad to Karachi and from Multan to Peshawar.

6th July 2009

Pakistani cricket players, fans, administrators and everyone else connected with Pakistan cricket have had very little to smile about over the last few years. The furrowed brows could be seen from Islamabad to Karachi and from Multan to Peshawar. The Lahore attack on the Sri Lankan team, other teams not willing to play in Pakistan, Pakistan removed from co-hosting the World Cup, the team on the field struggling, power struggles once again in the corridors of the PCB, players criticizing each other in the full glare of the media, warts and you can see things have been pretty dire haven’t they.

However over the last few weeks everyone connected with Pakistan cricket have been given plenty for them to walk around with puffed out chests and huge beaming smiles. Smiles in fact that even skipper Younis Khan who must have one of the best and most recognizable smiles in world cricket would be proud of.

The unexpected Twenty/20 World Cup victory in England was of course a huge moment for Pakistani fans and the players, who were regarded as underdogs for the tournament played in Nottingham and London.

With hardly any time to savor the Twenty/20 World Cup victory, no celebration meal at TKCs in Southall, no fanfare at Lahore airport and no parade in Pakistan, the players were in Sri Lanka before you could say “were you watching Daniel Vettori”.

Sometimes there are incidents in cricket that make you smile, other times there are matches that make you smile, on other occasions there are dismissals or shots that can make you smile. For this article I want to pinpoint one Pakistani cricketer who is making us Pakistani cricket fans especially beam with pride.

The player who deserves special mention for cheering up the nation is a young man who not so long ago nobody had heard of. Only die hard Pakistani fans who had been following domestic cricket closely had heard of Mohammad Aamer. I remember watching him in one of the 50 over competitions where he was playing for Rawalpindi Rams and thinking this skinny little kid has got some potential. A whippy action, a skiddy type of bowler who had pace, has now been turned into an extraordinary talent. I remember receiving a telephone call from my very excited brother in law saying that he had been watching a kid called Aamer bowling in Nairobi and he looks a great prospect. Interesting I thought, but I had seen too many false dawns of late to get too excited.

Aamer is one of those cricketers who from the outside looks like he plays the game the same way as if he is playing a test match in Galle, a one day final at Lords or playing against his mates in Lahore. There is nothing scientific about his approach and he reminds me of one of those young cricketers who thinks to hell with the technical side of the game, I just want to bowl as fast as I can and get this player out by hook or crook.

However make no mistake, this is no ordinary talent. He is the latest in the never ending conveyor belt of Pakistani fast bowlers but this conveyor belt has been malfunctioning of late with the team having to rely on medium pacers rather than out and out quicks. Aamer already clocking in the high 140kmh will no doubt become even faster if he remains injury free and obviously as his body becomes stronger.

He is a lad who I have been lucky to speak to on a couple of occasions and his innocence and his humility is a joy to listen to, although his dialling tone leaves a lot to be desired However that innocence is not evident on the cricket field where already at such a tender age he has shown the watching world that he can work batsmen out and that he has a great cricketing brain.

The opening over in the Twenty/20 world cup final was one of the best overs I have ever seen and I’ve been watching cricket for a long time now. The way he worked over man of the tournament Dilshan was a sight to behold. He has continued that form in test cricket and has taken 6 high caliber wickets on debut with an array of fantastic deliveries that have bamboozled some great Sri Lankan batsmen.

There's nothing quite like a young genuinely fast bowler to get fans pumped up and I thank you Mohammad Aamer for bringing a huge smile to mine and no doubt millions of other Pakistani cricket fans all around the world.