A big thanks to PP's own W63 for putting us in touch with Sulaman Qadir and of course to Sulaman himself for taking the time to answer your questions.

Sulaman comes across as a very humble, nice and friendly person. Not at all what you'd expect from a 'star son'

I'll be sending him the link to this interview so he should read any comments you leave for him!

Here's the interview, I hope you enjoy it...

by PakPassion Staff

PakPassion.Net: What got you into playing cricket when you were younger?

Sulaman Qadir: I would watch my father and my older brothers playing and I wanted to be a part of that. Also Imran is only a few years older than me so when he started playing, I wanted to play too.


PakPassion.Net: How many brothers do you have and do they all play cricket?

Sulaman Qadir: Altogether we're four brothers. The eldest is Rehman, he plays club cricket. Then there's Imran who is only a couple of years older than me and he's playing first class this season. After Imran there's me and then the youngest is Usman who played in last years u15 World Cup.


PakPassion.Net: Tell us about Imran Qadir and his leather allergy.

Sulaman Qadir: He was a very promising leg spinner and was part of the u15 World Cup in 1996. Pakistan reached the final which took place at Lords cricket ground. Sadly whilst he was over in the UK he got an infection which led to him having a leather allergy, the skin on his hands cracks and gets very painful. It got so bad that he couldn't bowl anymore. He has now re-invented himself as a batsman and is playing first class cricket with Pakistan Customs. It's a real shame though because he was a very talented leg spinner.


PakPassion.Net: Yes I've heard about his bowling from a lot of people, it's a shame for Pakistan cricket to have lost out on a talent like Imran. What about Usman?

Sulaman Qadir: I'm confident that Usman will be a superstar, he's a very good legspinner who bowls like my dad.


PakPassion.Net: Apart from your dad, which cricketers did you enjoy watching whilst growing up?

Sulaman Qadir: In those days Wasim was in his element and I used to love watching him play cricket. These days Murali is something else, as an off spinner myself I always make time just to watch him bowl. The other cricketer I like currently is Shoaib Malik because like me he's a batting all-rounder and we both bowl off spin.


PakPassion.Net: Your father revived the art of legspin making it possible for guys like Warne and Mushy to follow him. Why then did you choose to bowl off spin?

Sulaman Qadir: Well Imran was already a leg break bowler and a very gifted one too. My father told us that, since our ages were so close together, if we were both leg spin bowlers then we wouldnt both be able to play in the same team. Imran was a bowling all-rounder and I'm a batting all-rounder so when I started playing cricket at the u17 level I chose to go with off spin .


PakPassion.Net: Which off spinner did u model yourself on.

Sulaman Qadir: Whilst Murali is my favourite and he's a fantastic bowler, his action is nothing like mine so I can't try and model my action on him. At the moment there aren't many great orthodox off spinners around and although Malik is only a part-time bowler nowadays, his action is the closest to mine so I try and copy him.


PakPassion.Net: What's the best advice you've got from your dad?

Sulaman Qadir: Hard work, prayer and constantly looking to improve myself are the keys to success.


PakPassion.Net: Apart from your father who are the best coaches you've had?

Sulaman Qadir: My club captain, Shoaib Dar, has been a great help to me in my career and has guided me from the start. He gave me a chance to play cricket at club level and provided excellent facilities for training and practising. Aqib Javed was my u19 coach for two years and in that time I really developed as a cricketer, he helped me out a lot and was giving me constant tips on what to do to fix my weaknesses. He also helped me build on my strengths, he's a great coach.


PakPassion.Net: How confident were you and your u19 unit of winning the 2004 u19 World Cup?

Sulaman Qadir: Actually we didn't really talk about winning the cup, instead our management told us that we needed to play from game to game. We were always concentrating on the next game because without winning that game there would be no final. We were warned that if we got caught up in dreaming about playing semi-finals and finals then we would lose sight of the next mundane group game and probably end up losing it because we weren't concentrating on our opposition. Aqib Javed and Sultan Rana would give each of us certain targets before every game and they'd make it clear what role each of us was to play, Alhamdulillah (thank God) everyone met their targets and that's how we won! If you compare the 2004 team to the 2000 and 2002 teams then we were nowhere near as talented as those guys but despite that we managed to win where they didn't. I put it down to the fact that we all worked well together as a team, thanks to intelligent management and coaching we all knew what was required of each other and that was the reason we won.


PakPassion.Net: What were your personal high points from that u19 WC?

Sulaman Qadir: The moment we won the cup has been the highlight of my playing career so far, we were one of the less fancied teams and we didn't have the star power of previous Pakistan u19 squads but still we won the cup. My other highlight was my partnership with Asif Iqbal in the final which helped us reach a defendable total. I came in with the team 4 wickets down for 80-odd runs and together we put on a partnership of close to a hundred runs. Those two memories will always stay with me. 


PakPassion.Net: During that World Cup were there any players that stood out as future stars?

Sulaman Qadir: At that age it's hard to tell who will go on to play International cricket. However the West Indies opener Xavier Marshall really impressed me because he was a very attacking player, he looked ready for International cricket.


PakPassion.Net: You were the main all-rounder of the side but which of our two specialist spinners (Tariq and Mansoor) was the better bowler back then?

Sulaman Qadir: They were entirely different types of bowlers. Murali was an off spinner and Mansoor was a leg spinner, they both had an exceptional tournament and you can't say that either one of them was better than the other.


PakPassion.Net: What happened to Mansoor Amjad?

Sulaman Qadir: He's been very unlucky with injuries. He was unfit again this season but I think he should be back soon.


PakPassion.Net: And Tariq Mahmood?

Sulaman Qadir: Murali was a very good bowler, he gave the ball huge turn but he was called for a suspect action and had to remodel it. Aqib Javed has been working very hard with Murali to try and get him used to his new action and back to bowling like he used to, hopefully he'll make a strong comeback.


PakPassion.Net: We know you as an all-rounder but do you consider yourself a batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder?

Sulaman Qadir: My batting is my main strength, I'm a lot like Shoaib Malik in that my batting is much stronger than my bowling.


PakPassion.Net: So what sort of bowler are you, economical or attacking?

Sulaman Qadir: My role is to bowl in the middle of the innings as a containing bowler and to send down as many maidens as I can. In order to take wickets, teams have to have a bowler who can throttle the run rate and put pressure on the batsmen to play shots at the other end. That's what I get asked to do.


PakPassion.Net: Can u bowl the doosra?

Sulaman Qadir: No, I'm still practising it.


PakPassion.Net: Even the greatest batsmen have weaknesses that need working on, what are yours?

Sulaman Qadir: My biggest weakness is that I'm vulnerable early on in the innings but if I stick around then I play a lot more confidently. Time and experience are the biggest teachers, a cricketer is always learning new things throughout his career. Unfortunately I haven't been given many chances to play first class cricket since 2004 and so without those opportunities I cant improve my game and gain experience.


PakPassion.Net: Are u more comfortable against spin bowling or fast bowling?

Sulaman Qadir: In limited overs cricket I'm comfortable against both but in 4 day cricket I have problems early on against spin bowling but I'm working hard on eradicating them.


PakPassion.Net: Other than the u19 WC, what is your most memorable batting performance?

Sulaman Qadir: The 125 that I scored against NWFP in 2007.


PakPassion.Net: What about your most memorable bowling performance?

Sulaman Qadir: I took 4 wickets for 48 for HBL against NBP and I scored 45* in the same game, that was a match to remember.


PakPassion.Net: Did your father pressure you more towards cricket or studies?

Sulaman Qadir: Actually he was quite easy going about that, he didn't pressure me either way. He let us choose what we wanted to do and made it clear that whatever we chose he'd be there to support and advise us. The only thing he stressed was that we should always work hard and not take things for granted.


PakPassion.Net: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being Qadir's son?

Sulaman Qadir: If there are any advantages then I'm yet to see them, from my experience it seems to be a disadvantage. It's hard to put into words the feeling of intense pressure and massive expectation that gets piled up on top of us just because our father was a cricket legend. People expect to see a young Abdul Qadir bowling and you're expected to perform straight away. Yes my father was a cricketing legend but I'm not, I'm just someone trying to make a name for myself in a very competitive environment. However some people just dont seem to understand that. If you perform badly then people say I told you so but if you perform well then the same people say it's because he's Qadir's son. So in a way it's a lose-lose situation. Sometimes you feel like you're not out there playing for yourself but for the family name.


PakPassion.Net: What about in selection, surely it helps with that?

Sulaman Qadir: I've been playing cricket for 7 years now and just look at the number of domestic games I've played since 2004. I rarely get selected and never with any consistency, so no I've not experienced any advantages like that.


PakPassion.Net: Why haven't you played a lot of domestic cricket since 2004?

Sulaman Qadir: If you don't get selected then how can you play? You mentioned earlier about being Qadir's son meaning that I get selection advantages well it's not true. I was an important part of a World Cup winning u19 side and I played a big part in the final through my partnership with Asif Iqbal but I still wasn't given a consistent chance at domestic level. Apart from the one season when I was sick, I just haven't been selected regularly and there's no other reason than that.


PakPassion.Net: Actually I've noticed that despite having very successful u19 teams since 2004 (2 WC wins and 1 WC SF), very few of those u19 players get proper chances at domestic level. The 2008 team has been quite lucky due to the ICL exodus freeing up places for them but the 2004 and 2006 teams were forgotten about after their world cup wins. Why is that?

Sulaman Qadir: I don't know and it doesnt make any sense to me. Every 2 years, through the regional system, we choose the best 15 or so u19 players in the country. We invest a lot of time and money in developing them for the u19 World Cup, we organise u19 tournaments so that they can get match practise. Then as soon as the u19 WC is over we dump them and move onto the next batch of 15 or so youngsters. But what about those players who just won a World Cup? What about those players who are the future of Pakistani cricket? Surely we need some sort of system in place to help them make the transition from u19 cricket to the first class level. We need a system in place where every 2 years each FC team should have to take on one player from the u19 World Cup and be required to give them consistent cricket. Otherwise what's the point of the investment in these u19 cricketers? In fact I would say that it's easier for a youngster to be successful at Test level then it is to be successful in our domestic cricket.


PakPassion.Net: And why is that?

Sulaman Qadir: Because if you're with the test team, then at least you have a genuine opportunity to be a regular part of the playing XI. In domestic cricket we have guys who've been around for 15 or more years still playing cricket and getting picked not based on performance but on seniority. This chokes out the younger talent who end up turning out for club sides just so they can play regular cricket. Younger players dont get much chance to develop their skills or even to play FC cricket unless they start scoring huge tons or taking bags of wickets from their first game.


PakPassion.Net: I've heard that a lot of talented young players leave Pakistan to play club cricket abroad (especially in the UK) because they can't get into a first class team or because they cant get any regular cricket with a first class team. Also the seniority thing has kept promising young players like Jamshed Ahmed, Akhtar Ayub, Mansoor Amjad, Tariq Mahmood and yourself on the bench when you should be playing in every game. But I guess it's unfair to just blame the seniority cancer on cricket alone, it's rife in all parts of Pakistani society. The precedence given to seniority stop youngsters getting chances in all fields, which stifles creativity and blocks the development of younger talent. What's happening in cricket is symptomatic of what's happening on a larger scale throughout every facet of Pakistani society.

Sulaman Qadir: I couldn't agree more.


PakPassion.Net: What are your future plans?

Sulaman Qadir: To keep working hard and trying my best when I do get a chance to play. I love playing limited overs cricket and hopefully I can get a consistent run in one day games. All I need is a chance to prove myself, so I'm waiting for it.


PakPassion.Net: Do you have any plans to play cricket abroad?

Sulaman Qadir: I played in the UK last year and I've had some offers from clubs this year too but I want to stay in Pakistan to be around for my brother Usman who's working really hard.


PakPassion.Net: Where do u see yourself in 5 years.

Sulaman Qadir: It only takes one season to turn everything on it's head, hopefully my season is coming soon and when it does then I could be anywhere in 5 years.


PakPassion.Net: Thank you for your time Sulaman and I hope your good season comes soon.

Sulaman Qadir: Thank you and my salams to everyone at your website.