IN modern-day cricket, genuine all-rounders are scarce. Perhaps limited-overs contests has taken away the skills. Containing batsmen bowling a limited-over spell or scoring thirty or forty runs in a hurry does not make one a genuine all-round cricketer.

Not the likes of Keith Miller, Sir Garfield Sobers, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Ian Botham or of late Jacques Kallis who left the game a few years ago after an exceptionally impressive career.

Certainly there are a number of contemporary cricketers who are playing the game for various teams and would have claims to be in that category but one really doesn’t see one in any team who deserve to have a similar tag that their predecessors had.

The person who I see in the making to reach the great all-rounders ranks is Moeen Ali, England’s quiet and modest cricketer, who since making his Test debut in 2014 against Sri Lanka at Lord’s has now become a vital cog in the wheel of England set-up.

The 30-year-old is a player who could stand up to the challenge as a batsman in dire situations and can also on helping wickets could make life uneasy for any batsman of the day.

In the first Test of the ongoing series against South Africa at Lord’s Moeen made a brilliant 87 in the first innings to take England to an impregnable position. He then also grabbed 10 wickets in the match as the hosts won and he gleefully received the man-of-the-match award for his memorable feet.

Not the best off-spinner that I have seen over the years, but certainly a very intelligent one to exploit the weaknesses of any skilled batsman.

With that feat at Lord’s Moeen became the fifth fastest to reach the double of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets in Tests after Shakib Al Hasan, Trevor Goddard, Keith Miller and Tony Greig; Moreover, Moeen was quicker to do the double than Imran, Botham, Kapil, Hadlee, Sobers and Kallis. That is in only 38 Tests, 10 less than the great Sobers.

When someone in the press conference asked if he thought of himself someone like Sobers, he jokingly replied: “In my garden I was better than Sobers.”

Of Asian bearings Moeen and his family hail from Azad Kashmir in Pakistan from a village near Mirpur. Like all migrant workers from that area, his grandfather had settled down in Birmingham area and married an English lady Betty Cox.

His father Munir Ali and his uncle twins from his grandfather marriage married twin sisters and Moeen, a Birmingham-born, developed through a system from juniors to under-19 to graduate into the England team. Having played at all levels Moeen did learn the trade under his father’s patronage as did his brothers Kadeer Ali, Omar Ali and his cousins Kabir Ali and Atif Ali from his father’s own cricket academy.

Moeen accepts the fact of his Muslim heritage and is proud of it. Once when asked of his Muslim background, he replied: “I am a Muslim yes but I am also very English.”

A devout practitioner of his faith, Moeen is very well accepted in the dressing room and his colleagues respect him for what he is, a God-fearing man with a long beard which gives him a different identity like South Africa’s frontline batsman Hashim Amla — one of the greats of the game.

Worcestershire county for which Moeen plays have a room for him to offer prayers and do respect his religious values.

“The stronger weapon in life is prayer and I believe in that,” he says.

In only his second Test series in 2014 and that was against India in England, Moeen seized 19 wickets to help England win the series and has looked stronger since having batted from number one to nine and as a changed bowler.

On his trips for England junior teams, Moeen met his wife-to-be in Sylhet in Bangladesh and married Firoza Hossain and has a son named Abu Bakr Ali.

I have not forgotten the day when he appeared in the field during a Test wearing a wristband announcing his thoughts on Palestine. ‘Free Palestine’ said the wristband and ‘Save Gaza’ having felt the torture and deaths of young Palestinians and their children from Israeli onslaught.

The ECB declared that it was not political but humanitarian and allowed him to go with it but ICC match referee David Boon was not pleased and overturned ECB’s decision.

Moeen’s philanthropy is not a secret as he is involved with ‘Streetchance’, a charity to develop underprivileged children.

“People have this idea that if you are a Muslim that you may not get a chance with England. Not true,” he admits.

What would you do after you quit cricket, he was asked? “I would open a ‘Chippy shop’that is a Fish & Chips place and would work as a cleaner in a mosque,” he replied.

A number of Asians have played before him and even after him but Moeen certainly has remained the pick of the lot.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2017