Looking through the dressing room windows as I tidied
up my kit at the close of last season, I watched the solitary
figure of Ron Allsop carefully tending the square and trying
to make good the damage of the summer. My mind turned back
to those jute matting wickets of the Sir Ali Sports Club
in Nairobi where I learnt my cricket. The season would just
be starting in Kenya, though now the matting has been replaced
by turf. Almost exactly twenty years ago to the day, I went
out to open for Kenya against the MCC and played an innings
which was to change the course of my life. The MCC had brought
out a strong team with ten England caps and the fast bowling
in the hands of David Larter, the tall Northants cricketer,
and the left arm seamer Jeff Jones, both at the peak of
their careers.
It was one of those days when from the first delivery the
ball went sweetly from the bat and the fast outfield encouraged
me to play strokes. Jones and Larter gave way to Robin Hobbs
and Tom Cartwright, but the runs still came and I had 84
to my name before I was stumped. At close of play, Mike
Smith, the MCC captain, congratulated me on my batting and
asked if I had thought of coming to England to make a career
out of cricket. My father thought that there was no harm
in Mr. Smith putting my name forward when he returned to
London- probably nothing would come of it! Over the next
ten months there were several letters and much discussion.
At times it looked as if the idea would come to nothing,
but in the autumn of 1965 I received a letter from Nottinghamshire
County Cricket Club, who offered me a two year contract
on their staff at £450 for the first year. There was a great
deal of debate in the Hassan household when that letter
arrived. I had never been outside East Africa in my life
and the thought of leaving friends and family behind for
the unknown, though it aroused my sense of adventure, was
more than a littje frightening.
The vital date was April 4th, 1966-a Monday. I had arrived
in Nottingham the previous Saturday, only to be greeted
with a snow storm; having flown in to Heathrow from Nairobi
two days before. April 4th was the day on which all the
players on the staff were required to report for duty. As
it happened the County had decided to make quite a number
of changes for 1966-Norman Hill, the dark haired opening
batsman had been made captain, Johnny Clay was the new coach
and two well-known players from other counties-Roy Swetman
and Bob White-had moved to Trent Bridge, so it meant that
I wasn't the only one trying to find his feet! I had however
one disadvantage which was unique-of the seventeen players,
I was the only one who had never played cricket on a grass
pitch. I went cautiously into the nets trying to learn,
in a fortnight, what the rest of the players had been accustomed
to all their lives-the daily -perhaps I ought to say hourly,
variations to be found on a grass wicket. Then it was off
to Queen's Park, Chesterfield, for my first chance out in
the middle. I was to spend the summer, whilst qualifying
for the County, playing for Worksop in the Bassetlaw League.
I was fortunate enough to score 93 not out on my debut for
Worksop and it was the beginning of a very happy season
with the Club-I also managed to make runs for Notts Second
XI and all in all that first season in England gave me a
great deal of hope that the County would be keen to renew
my contract at the end of 1967. That second summer saw me
hit my first century in County cricket and I managed to
win a place in the Championship side for most of the season.
A sudden change in the qualification rules for the 1968
season however put a stop to hopes of strengthening my place
in the First team-Notts signed Garry Sobers and Deryck Murray,
both of course West Indian Test players, and each county
was permitted to play only two overseas men in any one match,
so I was confined to the second team. I did get one chance,
against the Australians, when I was so anxious to prove
my worth that I bagged a king pair in just over an hour-I
shall have to ask our librarian if that's a record; if it
is I hope no one is unfortunate enough to beat it!
Happily I was able to play for the first team in 1969 and
in fact didn't miss a match, though I expect my old friends
in Nairobi were a trifle surprised to discover that my place
in the side was due to my fielding in the covers! I batted,
more often than not, at No. 7- although at home I always
opened the batting and kept wicket.
So much has happened in the last twenty years that this
short essay cannot even give all the highlights of my career
in first-class cricket. The great moment for me was the
winning of the Championship in 1981, but above all cricket
has enabled me to meet and make friends with so many people
and given me opportunities which I would not otherwise have
had. I certainly made the right decision when I signed that
two year contract all those years ago-the career of a professional
cricketer has its ups and downs and you can't get further
down than a king pair in an hour, but I wouldn't change
any of it
