Mushtaq was a highly skilled leg-spinner who took 185 test and 161 ODI wickets for Pakistan, for whom he was part of the 1992 World Cup winning team, and is now part of the England coaching set up. But neither of these facts are the reason why he is a Reverse Sweep hero; although we hope that he may yet help make Adil Rashid a world class English leg spinner.
No, Mushy is a Reverse Sweep hero for one reason. Sussex. Our county hadn't won the County Championship in over a century of trying. And then Mushy came along in 2002. In the next five seasons, he took 457 championship wickets including 39 five wicket hauls as well as taking ten wickets in a match 15 times, as Sussex gloriously won the title not once, but three times in 2003, 2006 and 2007. For a short time, Sussex became the Man Utd of English cricket only without the huge budget and Mushy was the primary reason.
Despite greats such as CB Fry, Kumar Ranjitsinhji, Maurice Tate, Ted Dexter, Tony Grieg and Imran Khan having graced the home changing room at Hove, Mushy has a strong claim to being Sussex's greatest ever player. Without a doubt he was the most effective and for that reason Mushtaq Ahmed is a Reverse Sweep hero.
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