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Minhaj sets sights on boosting Horspath

01 Jun 2023

SRI Lankan Minhaj Jalill is focused on helping Horspath climb the Home Counties Premier League Division 2 table after signing as the overseas professional for this season.
With four games gone - although one was a washout - the club stand in sixth place and the 28-year-old batting all-rounder from Colombo has already had an impact.
He took 4-24 and made an important 29 in the five-wicket win at Cumnor, before hitting his maiden Home Counties half-century with 76 in the five-wicket defeat at home to Chesham.
Speaking after training at the Recreation Ground on Tuesday, he says: "I always try and do my best. Cricket is a game you have to play until the end. It can change at any minute. Whoever makes less mistakes will win.
"I think we have a good young side. It is too early to say whether we can win the league, but if we work hard, we can do well.
"It is a target of mine to win the league because I have not won a league."
Minhaj has been given a specific role in the Horspath batting line-up as he explains: "In Sri Lanka I open the batting and here I take a bit more responsibility in the order by batting four or five to take the pressure.
"I know the club have signed me for a reason and that is to take more responsibility on my shoulders by batting there.
"As a batsman I like to play positively. I needed to bat slower against Chesham. I like to score runs a little bit quicker, but it depends on the situation."
Minhaj has also shown he can make a valuable contribution with the ball.
"I bowl off-spin," he adds. "I used to be a really good bowler when I was young, but once I started batting in the team order I just slightly gave up bowling in Sri Lanka and became like a part-time bowler, but here I bowl quite often."
He has set himself personal targets in terms of runs and wickets, and although he is keeping these under wraps, he is keen to challenge himself in what is his fifth season in this country.
Minhaj has passed the milestone of 500 league runs in each of his four previous campaigns here.
Playing for Portsmouth in Southern Premier League Division 1 last year, he hit 582 runs at an average of 41.57, including an unbeaten 106 against Rowledge and four half-centuries, while he took 23 wickets at 23.09. His all-round contribution helped the south coast club finish fourth behind champions Alton.
In 2019 and 2021, he starred for Cowdrey in the Kent League with 508 and 645 runs respectively at 39.08 and 43.00, featuring a top score of 96 among nine fifties. He also claimed 37 and 16 victims at 9.08 and 25.50.
His first season of English club cricket came in 2018 at Bovey Tracey in the Devon League Premier Division where he scored 515 runs at 34.33, including a century and two fifties.
Adapting to conditions here is always a challenge for overseas players with the ball moving off the seam compared to the drier pitches of the sub-continent where the emphasis is on spin.
Minhaj comments: "The leagues I have played in have been a really good standard. In Sri Lanka we play against spin and here it is more pace bowlers, so that has helped me more in my career with playing different types of bowling.
"In Sri Lanka it is really dry and bouncy wickets. Every year the first few weeks over here I have found a little bit tough, but once I was used to it, it was fine."
Minhaj has branched out to play cricket in this country after establishing himself in his homeland.
He says: "I started playing cricket at the age of seven after watching a game in SSC (Singhalese Sports Club) with my father. I played all the age groups in my school (Thurstan College) at under 13, 15, 17 and 19.
"I played for Sri Lanka Under 17s in 2012 and went on a tour of India for a series. It was an honour representing my country.
"At under 19 in 2013 I was the runner-up as the All-Island most popular school cricketer and in 2014 I got the under 19 All-Island batsman award."
He claimed that prize after becoming just the third player to score more than 1,000 runs in an All-Island Under-19 Division 1 season with his tally of 1,094 coming at 54.70 and including four centuries and seven fifties.
Minhaj grew up in a golden era of Sri Lankan cricket when the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene starred on the world stage, but it was an adopted Englishman he took inspiration from.
"Cricket is the main sport in Sri Lanka and from my schooldays I liked Kevin Pietersen," he says. "He is my favourite. I liked his attitude and the way he plays. He is really positive, and I like that. I don't try to imitate anyone, but I do like the way he bats."
From Thurstan College, he moved into club cricket making his first-class debut for Tamil Union in 2014-15.
He has played for eight clubs in his homeland, most recently Ace Capital last season, while his career highlight came for Galle in the 2016-17 campaign when he hit his maiden first-class century against SSC on his home ground.
"It was unforgettable," he says. "I scored 144 and that is my best innings."
He has now played 28 first-class games, scoring 1,380 runs at an average of 30.00 - and he still harbours ambitions on the international scene.
"I hope to play for Sri Lanka - at least one game," he says. "I am sure about that. That is a kind of aim. I am ambitious to play good cricket at a good level for a long time and after I retire, I would like to be a top-class coach."
Enthused by the warm welcome he has received at Horspath with Max Eason and Richard Hofen receiving a special mention, talk of coaching brings him back to his other role at the club.
Minhaj, who has a wife back in Sri Lanka, says: "I coach and there is no age barrier or gender barriers. When I was in Kent in my first year, I did girls coaching and in my second year I oversaw the girls' section for that season.
"I would like the kids to take something from my experience and knowledge. I have done plenty of coaching in this country over the last five years.
"I love coaching because I like to share what I have learned from my national and international coaches. It is good for me as well because when I coach, I am repeating the same thing and it goes in my mind as well, which helps me.
"If anyone at the club wants coaching feel free to contact me."