Local hero desperate to avoid limelight despite starring role in England revival
Moeen embarrassed by new-found profile as he rails against the costs faced by next generation
Edgbaston conjures glowing memories, too: distant visions of the nine-year-old boy who turned up for his first Warwickshire trial with a cherubically smooth chin, and pads several sizes too big for him. “The guy I borrowed them off was in the under-12s,” he remembers. “They were just massive. I batted all right, still.”
He bats all right, still, although these days he does it for England. But more than most in his position, Moeen has never forgotten where he comes from. In a sport rapidly disappearing from this country’s inner cities, into the villages and private school grounds where most of our green space resides, Moeen – from a humble, state-school background in Sparkhill – is one of the last links between this England team and much of the country it claims to represent.
As England trained at Edgbaston yesterday ahead of the first Investec Test against the West Indies, they had company. Next to them on the outfield, dozens of primary schoolchildren in yellow T-shirts were taking part in small-sided games as part of the new All Stars Cricket initiative.
Afterwards, some were allowed to put their questions to Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Alastair Cook in a mock press conference – albeit, not much more trivial than the real thing – before leaving with satisfied smiles and fresh autographs. It is the England and Wales Cricket Board’s latest attempt to broaden access, and fair play, they are putting their backs into it. For £40 you get eight sessions, a bat, a ball and a bag of personalised kit. Still, in one of the most diverse cities in Britain, it was striking how many of the faces were white. Moeen has his own thoughts.
“I feel the kit is so expensive,” he says. “Not all the parents can afford it. I feel a kid should be able to have brand new gloves, for example, not use somebody else’s gloves. Things like that do attract kids to play, and I feel that is a massive problem sometimes.”
After that first day at Edgbaston, it would be a couple more years before Moeen had a pair of pads he could call his own. “Even then, my dad had to get it from a guy he knew at the shop, and pay him back slowly,” he remembers.
“And my gloves were somebody else’s. And the helmet. Just drop the prices. So much kit gets wasted. Whoever is in charge of it, just give it out. Or invest. You definitely have to make it cheaper. You go to the shops, and there’s a bat that’s £400 or £500. It’s ridiculous for a child to have that.”
It is Moeen’s willingness to speak out on whatever issue moves him – whether it is politics, religion or access to decent junior cricket kit – that has made him one of the most important things to happen to English cricket in recent years. On the field, too, he is living up to his star billing. He was man of the series against South Africa, the product not simply of a more aggressive mindset, but a more consistent action that he has honed with coach Saqlain Mushtaq.
“I feel I am understanding more about my bowling,” he says. “I still bowl a few bad balls, but now I know why. Whereas before, I didn’t.”
It is coaching that appeals to Moeen when he finally hangs up his boots, although not at international level. Instead, he says, he would like to return to Birmingham, and give something back to the community that birthed him. “I think I’d like to coach kids,” he says. “Get stuck in a bit more.”
And as famous as he gets in the meantime, you suspect that for this most reluctant of heroes, the pull of his roots will remain impossible to resist.
Investec is the title sponsor of Test match cricket in England. For more on Investec visit investec.com/cricket