As he waited for teammates to accompany him to dinner in Chandigarh last week, Imran Tahir busied himself by shadow-bowling in the lobby of the Taj Hotel.
The bowling arm was still high, it came through in the quick fashion which has now become synonymous with Tahir, as was the high right leg, the follow through – a leggie here, a googly there, oooh now a top-spinner and then a flipper – all delivered with that enthusiastic burst of energy that is quickly becoming one of the iconic images of this year’s World Cup.
Grooving his action? Perhaps, but Tahir also just loves bowling, loves leg-spin bowling and loves playing for South Africa.
It would be one thing if all he did was say it, but he lives it too, whether it be through the way he fields – he’s not the most athletic, but he is committed – how he bowls, how he celebrates each wicket, how quick he is to share a laugh with his teammates and how he wants to engage with them and all the social activities away from playing and practice.
“Some great players never played in a World Cup, some who played maybe didn’t have good sides around them or their form at the World Cup wasn’t good. I’m really grateful to have been a part of this great team. Just to be part of this side has been like a dream come true,” said Tahir.
The 31-year-old’s selection for the squad was greeted with a kind of hand-rubbing relief by the arm chair experts in South Africa who had long bemoaned the absence of an attacking spin option in the national team.
Cricket South Africa showed how desperate they were to get Tahir into the national side by calling him up before he’d even qualified as a South Africa citizen two seasons ago. Throughout the summer and particularly during the third Test against India as Paul Harris bowled over after unsuccessful over on the final day at Newlands, the calls for Tahir’s inclusion grew louder.
It turned into cacophony when he was eventually named in the one-day side for the series against India but was then not used in any of the five matches.
“Without Jacques Kallis it was very hard to fill that fourth seamer spot in South Africa. It’s been difficult in South Africa to make a case for playing two or three spinners in a starting side. I’m sure there might have been supporters or even members of my family who were angry about me not playing, but I was very happy, I had an unbelievable time in the team – even though I didn’t play. They were open with their communication to me, they kept supporting me and I knew one day I’d get my chance,” Tahir said this week.
When that chance arrived in South Africa’s opening game against the West Indies, it came in a flurry of leggies and wrong ‘uns, a dropped catch, wickets and a kiss of the badge. It was an infectious burst of enthusiasm that carried his teammates, and made South Africans gathered around television sets at home, fall in love him.
“It’s natural, it’s the way I am. You can look at videos of me in county cricket. I always celebrate my wickets like that. People enjoy that, it’s not like I’m making up my mind before hand how I’m going to celebrate, it comes to me naturally,” Tahir explained of his arm-waving sprint towards teammates every time he takes a wicket.
“I always get excited when I take wickets, that’s my mission, cricket is my life, so every wicket is special for me especially when you’re playing in big competitions.”
His journey into the South African side is well scripted. He arrived as a member of the Pakistan under-19 side that toured South Africa in 1999, and fell in love with Sumayya Dildar, who would become his wife. He stayed as a result, eventually gaining citizenship.
His life as a leg-spinner started on the dusty streets of Lahore, where he was born in 1979.
“I just started playing cricket, and one day I found that I may be able to do something in the leg-spin department,” he says.
“It was the culture where I was from, there was always leg-spin bowlers. To be honest nobody helped me. I have very good friend (Rehman Qadir) the son of the great, legendary leg-spinner Abdul Qadir. I used to bowl with him and he took me to his dad a few times and that’s how he started helping me.”
If engaging with Abdul Qadir as a youngster piqued his interest, a special meeting with another legendary leggie of a more recent vintage reinforced his love of leg-spin. “I also met with Shane Warne two years ago. When I was at Hampshire he came down from London to talk to me about leg-spin for an hour.
“It’s the way he talked about leg-spin bowling that made such an impression on me,” said Tahir. Tapping into the minds of two of the great wrist spinners of all time certainly made a great impression.
“When they talk about leg-spin, you can get into their minds a bit, see how they think. There are a few things I learnt, not necessarily about my action, or about new variations, just the mental approach they adopted.”