Spoilt Brat? Rashid's An Asian Role Model

ADIL RASHID has come under fire from some of Yorkshire’s most famous sons in the past week. First Michael Vaughan vented his frustration at the leg-spinners inclusion in Joe Root’s squad for the Edgbaston Test.

- Richard Edwards

His comments were then backed up by Matthew Hoggard and Darren Gough, before Geoffrey Boycott came off a predictably long-run on the eve of the Test.

Rashid was, he wrote, ‘a spoilt brat’, and a player whose Test match performances would not be remembered a decade from now. It was a stinging rebuke for a cricketer who has divided opinion like no other so far in 2018.

By while the majority of Yorkshire is clearly unimpressed by England’s recall of a spinner who turned his back on four-day cricket earlier this year, it’s worth remembering the significant impact that Rashid has had in the county – particularly on young spin-bowlers from the county’s Asian communities.

Mark Lawson, two years Rashid’s senior and Yorkshire’s number one leg-spinner before his emergence, is in no doubt that the Bradford-born star has already left a legacy in his home county, no matter what happens next.

“I’m now a freelance cricket coach after working for Yorkshire for the past nine years,” says Lawson. “And there are times when there are more leggies in the nets than quick bowlers or offspinners. He was always a stunning junior cricketer. I remember getting a phone call from (David) Byas (the then Yorkshire coach) when Adil wasn’t really bowling in the second XI because he was batting five or six and scoring runs.