Naved-ul-Hasan

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan (Punjabi, Urdu: رانا نوِیدُالحسَن; born 28 February 1978) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played all formats of the game.

A right-arm fast-medium bowler capable of generating good pace with the late swing, he was a genuine strike bowler. Prone to leaking runs earlier in his career, he later used his vast county experience to be economical in death overs. He often bowled the reverse-swinging yorker in one day and T20 cricket and had good control over change of pace, though he sometimes could be expensive. Naved-ul-Hasan was also a useful attacking lower-order batsman with 5 first-class centuries and many fifties, including a score of 95 in 57 balls in a T20 game which lifted his team Sialkot Stallions to the tournament final. He discontinued playing cricket for personal reasons between 1995 and 1999.

Naved-ul-Hasan also boasted an exceptional pedigree in domestic Twenty20 cricket played all around the world, having amassed 75 appearances with Sialkot Stallions, Sussex Sharks, Yorkshire Carnegie, Tasmania Tigers and Hobart Hurricanes.

County Championship winner with Sussex in 2006 and 2007, Naved is no stranger to the county game, having also represented Yorkshire in 2008 and 2009. Naved has been in KFC Twenty20 Big Bash action in Australia for Hobart Hurricanes, recently topping the tournament wicket-takers list with 15 dismissals in eight matches and gaining cult status with the nickname "The People's Mullet".

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan says he came to cricket by chance: originally a hockey Right Out who represented Pakistan U-16, a serious knee injury ended his hockey. On his father’s advice, who was a sports teacher in Sheikhupura, he switched from tape-ball to hard-ball cricket, played for Government College Sheikhupura and MCB’s juniors, then toured New Zealand with Pakistan’s youth side in 1994. Coach Billy Ibadulla urged the board to persevere with him; Naved captained Pakistan U-19 against West Indies and won Man of the Series.

Naved-ul-Hasan only made the occasional Test appearance for Pakistan with little success, having to compete with Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami for a place in the side. As a result, he became regular in ODI. Naved's career with Pakistan saw him take 110 wickets in 74 one-day internationals between 2003 and 2010 and a career best of 6–27 versus India in 2005. The 33-year-old Pakistani bowler has good of international experience, having represented his country on 87 occasions.

Naved-ul-Hasan made his international debut at the Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup on 4 April immediately after the poor 2003 Cricket World Cup campaign in which Pakistan were eliminated in the first round and a number of players were dropped. Playing against Sri Lanka, Rana took the wickets of Hashan Tillakaratne and Prasanna Jayawardene in consecutive balls but failed to take a hat-trick. Despite several good performances he was soon dropped from the side for alleged disciplinary problems.

With injuries to key members of the Pakistani pace attack he worked his way back into the side before once again falling out of favour with the national selectors and unable to stake a claim ahead of emerging young fast bowlers such as Umar Gul and Iftikhar Anjum.