Written by Peter Fitzsimons and assisted by Greg Cook in "Fitz's Files" in the Sydney Morning Herald 10/02/2024

"Lindfield... A Great Test Proving Ground"

Last Friday, 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir made his Test cricket debut for England, against India, where he took four wickets.

Shoaib is English-born of Pakistani heritage and hadn’t even been born when teammate Jimmy Anderson started playing Tests. But last summer Shoaib was playing for Lindfield in the Shires competition, effectively Division Two Sydney cricket. “A great lad,” Lindfield official Greg Cook tells me. “We gave him a Saab with questionable roadworthiness. I had to meet up and jump-start it for him a few times.”

And he formed such friendships with the Lindfield team that three of them dropped everything to fly to India to be there and watch every ball. Gotta love this city.

*The three Lindfield lads visited Visakhapatnam, the site of the second test, and witnessed Shoaib's first Test wicket, Indian captain Rohit Sharma. While over there, the Lindfield boys met up with Shoaib and gave him a trophy, left behind on presentation day. Quite the journey!*

SMH - https://www.smh.com.au/sport/why-manu-won-t-be-the-last-league-player-signed-by-french-rugby-20240209-p5f3n5.html