England all-rounder Moeen Ali after winning the man of the match award for his performance against India at Kia Oval, talked about his faith, family and cricket. Ali, a deeply religious man, was born in a mixed race family- English mother an Pakistani father and had a challenging childhood. His father Munir sacrificed his career to create time to allow him to help the cricketing ambitions of his sons, Kadeer, Moeen and Omar. Ali's serious conversion to Islam came after he had a meeting with a man called Ray Walee. His role model is the great South African cricketer Hashim Amla. “I was a bit reluctant until I saw Hash. Hash made it much easier for me. I thought 'if he can do it, why not me. Religion is more important than sport to me. I work hard at my game like everyone else. Yes, you have faith in something or someone, but it doesn't mean that if you are playing poorly he doesn't like you. You have to be very careful with that,” says Ali.
Rude behaviour
Reflecting on his struggles on the last Ashes tour of Australia, Ali admitted: “I found it very difficult in Australia to switch off. It was my first Ashes tour and I was desperate to do well and was really looking forward to it. I worked so hard on the short ball before the series began, maybe too hard. Then (Nathan) Lyon kept getting me out. I found that very hard to deal with. I never thought that I was a poor player of spin but I really struggled against him. I wasn't getting any wickets either. Things just got tougher and tougher.”
On his impressions about Australian cricketers, Ali said that he finds the whole team 'rude' and did not have any sympathy for the banned cricketers. “Everyone you speak to ... they are the only team I’ve played against my whole life that I’ve actually disliked. Not because its Australia and they are the old enemy but because of the way they carry on and (their) disrespect of people and players.” He said, “the first game I ever played against them, in Sydney, they were not just going hard at you, they were almost abusing you. That was the first time it hit me. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but the more I played against them they were just as bad, the Ashes here (in 2015) they were worse, actually. Not intimidating, just rude.”
Australian cricket was thrown into turmoil earlier this year when captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batsman Cameron Bancroft were banned after a ball-tampering scandal during a Test in South Africa. Ali said he felt no sympathy for Smith, Warner and Bancroft. “I’m someone who generally feels sorry for people when things go wrong but its difficult to feel sorry for them.” The ball-tampering scandal was also seen as a watershed for the sport in Australia with the Cricket Australia announcing a root and-branch review and ordering a charter governing player behaviour.
