Why is Ajmal Shahzad leaving Yorkshire?

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Ajmal Shahzad bowling - old ball just out of shot

Who knows? It’s Yorkshire. The only thing that can be stated with any certainty is that the decison will have been made by someone muttering: “All right, well ruddy sod yer then.”

Our guess is that Ajmal Shahzad has never felt too loved by his county. England always seemed to hold him in higher regard, which is weird. He rarely got the new ball for Yorkshire and it might be significant that his sudden departure comes shortly after it was announced that Mitchell Starc would be arriving at Headingley.

It’s hard when your employer doesn’t value what you consider to be your strongest skills. If you think you’re really getting the hang of staring at the wall and the company then goes and hires a foreign wall-starer, you’ll naturally feel pretty unappreciated. We think this is basically what’s happened to Ajmal Shahzad.

DON'T BE LIKE GATT!

Mike Gatting wasn't receiving the King Cricket email when he dropped that ludicrously easy chance against India in 1993.

Coincidence?

Why risk it when it's so easy to sign up?

16 comments

  1. Interesting that the SSN moving caption thingy states that Shahzad was “told” to look for another county. Curiouser and curiouser.

    And how happening is this site?! A photo from Shahzad’s last ever bowling spell for Yorkshire!

    Feeling a little “aww” tonight for Adil, too. Bless!

  2. I’m not entirely convinced. Google Image suggests he has at least 59,600 different faces. Cricinfo mentions regular mood swings.

    There are some dots to join somewhere but I can’t quite work them out.

    1. We’ll have him. (By ‘we’, I mean Warwickshire. I don’t mean he can come and live in my house. Although thinking about it, he would probably slot in quite well. As long as he doesn’t eat all of my Sainsbury’s basics cereal bars.)

  3. I’m reading your Majesty’s post closely for any hint of cross-Pennine schadenfreude, but it seems strangely absent. I’m sure some of the court will make up for this over the course of the day

  4. Yorkshire considers themselves to be a first-division standard team playing in the second division, a discrepancy they seem to be looking to address with this move.

  5. I like his 70 mph offspinner variation, but in the view of Yorkshire they will just increase Sidebottom’s workload from 30 overs to 50. Which begs the question, will Sidebottom bounce Cosker? Will Jacques be bowled by Rob Croft?

  6. And also, why is County cricket being played in Scarborough at the begining of May?

    Is someone trying to turn all the old and much loved traditions completely on their head?

  7. David Hopps on Gale and Bairstow making fifties today:

    “Neither half-century has been announced because Scarborough have forgotten to buy any batteries for the mic. “The information is piling up and I can’t tell anyone anything,” bemoaned Tony, the PA announcer.”

    later

    “Forget the Shahzad Crisis. At least for now. The Yorkshire Battery Crisis is rivalling it. A newly-married couple are shivering on the terraces waiting for their troth plighting to be announced to all and sundry and the PA is still dead.

    So far, 23 middle managers have been rung and nobody has done anything about it even though there is a newsagent at the end of the street. Somebody has promised to try to remember when she picks up the kids from school. That’s British industry for you.”

    It isn’t quite as succint as Aliviro Petersen’s summation of county cricket last week, but it’s more poignant.

    1. It was from our Twitter round-up last week. He said: “Game rained off, its a draw. Off to chelmsford now.”

      We thought that pretty much summed things up.

  8. This post pretty much sums up my current employment situation.

    I can empathise with Aj.

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