The best beard in cricket

Moeen Ali – known to fans as “the beard to be feared” – has the most luxuriant facial hair seen in English cricket since W.G. Grace. The Birminghamborn all-rounder is proud to wear this outward symbol of his devotion to Islam, especially as he came to the faith relatively late. “My family weren’t religious,” he told Andrew Anthony in The Times. “We never used to pray or anything like that. We followed bits of the culture, but I never used to agree with it. And if me or my brothers were sent to the mosque, we e used to skive off and go to the park to play football or cricket.” Ali associateded Islam with practices ces he disapprovedd of, such as forced ced marriage. But then he met a Christianhristian convert to Islam who changed ed his mind, by y explaining that Ali was s conflating religion with Pakistani culture. At 18 – the year he made hiss first-class debut – Ali became a practising Muslim; praying, fasting and devoting his life to Allah. His England teammates, he says, have always been touchingly respectful of his faith. For example, after they won this summer’s series against South Africa, there was a photocall with champagne. “Cookie [Alastair Cook, the former England captain] said, ‘Let’s do a picture without champagne first and make sure Moeen’s in it, then he can walk away.’ Things like that you appreciate. It’s great to be in that environment where we all get along, no matter what background you have or what you look like.”