Hamid Hassan

Hamid Hassan (born 1 June 1987) is an Afghan cricketer.

He is a right-arm fast bowler and a right-handed batsman who mainly plays as a bowler.

Hassan was born in 1987.

He is the second of three sons; Rashid being his elder brother and Shamshad the younger one.

When Hassan was six years old, his family fled fighting in their home district of Bati Kot near Jalalabad, Afghanistan to go to Pakistan as refugees.

They lived in a refugee camp in Peshawar, where Hassan learned to play cricket on the streets with a taped tennis ball from his elder brother.

Cricket had a stigma among his people, and when his grades started to suffer at school as a result of cricket, his parents tried to stop him from playing, but he continued to play in secret.

Hassan joined a cricket club in 2002 and got selected for a team to go to the Asian Cricket Council Under-17 Trophy in 2003.

Hassan weighed nearly 18 st, but after watching the 2005 Ashes series on TV and being inspired by Andrew Flintoff, he lost weight until he was down to 13 st so that he could bowl fast.

In March 2006, Hassan played a match for Afghanistan against a Marylebone Cricket Club team led by Mike Gatting in Mumbai.

Afghanistan thrashed the MCC by 179 runs, and Hassan took the wicket of Gatting.

He was subsequently invited to join MCC Young Cricketers.

At 20 years of age, Hassan became the first Afghan to play cricket at Lord's. He played for the Marylebone Cricket Club in a match against a European XI in June 2007.

He bowled with good control at over 145 km/h, with Gatting calling him a “huge potential”.

Hassan was part of Afghanistan's squad for the 2008 ICC World Cricket League Division Five in Jersey, which was the start of the qualification process for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Hassan took three wickets in Afghanistan's win against Botswana and two wickets in their win over Nepal, which gave Afghanistan a place in the tournament final and ensured they would progress to the next stage of World Cup qualification.

He made his international debut in April 2009.

Hassan was in Afghanistan's squad for the 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, which was the first time Afghanistan had participated in the event.

During the group stage of the tournament, Hassan mostly played as a first-change bowler, and he surprised opposition teams in the tournament with his skill and pace, with Bermuda captain Irving Romaine claiming he was one of the fastest bowlers in the tournament.

"I was surprised when the last seam bowler [Hassan] came on. He is a quality bowler, one of the fastest in the tournament. We did not expect that at all and he is a top-notch bowler."

Hassan took two wickets against Bermuda, and Afghanistan progressed from the group stage of the tournament to the Super Eights.

Opening the bowling against Ireland, Hassan took five wickets.

He dismissed William Porterfield early, then removed Ireland's two established batsmen Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien in consecutive overs before taking two more wickets in Ireland's tail.

Four of his five wickets came bowled.

His bowling performance was enough to give Afghanistan a 22-run win, causing a massive upset over the team who went on to win the tournament.

Hassan was far less successful in the next match against Canada, conceding 32 runs in three overs.

Afghanistan lost to Canada and their chances of qualifying for the World Cup were virtually over.

Hassan finished the tournament with 3/37 against Namibia and 3/26 against Scotland, and though they didn't qualify for the World Cup, Afghanistan did achieve official One Day International status for the next four years.

In 2010, Hassan compared Afghanistan's rise through the ranks of international cricket with the film Rocky.

"I think that there is a similarity in the story of Rocky and the Afghanistan cricket team - we both started at the bottom and gradually made our way up the rankings. It is easy to forget how far we have come in the last two years since we played at the World Cricket League Division 5 in Jersey."

"It is a huge win for Afghanistan. For four months we have been thinking about Division Four, so it is like a dream come true. The [World Cup] dream is alive and we'll try our best to get to 2011. The people in Afghanistan will be very happy and there will be huge celebrations. They will all be in the roads dancing and everything."

He was Afghanistan's best bowler in the tournament final against Jersey, taking four wickets for 27 runs, decimating Jersey's middle order and giving Afghanistan control of the match.

Hassan began division four with a dominant performance against Fiji.

Though Afghanistan had only managed to score 132 runs in their innings, Hassan took four wickets for 25 runs as Afghanistan bowled out Fiji for just 52, starting the tournament with an 80-run win.

Hassan was influential through the rest of the tournament, taking three wickets against Tanzania and running out Joe Scuderi when Afghanistan defeated Italy, gaining another promotion to the next stage of the World Cricket League.

Afghanistan won the tournament final against Hong Kong, and Hassan almost finished the tournament with a hat-trick.

He took two wickets on consecutive deliveries, but bowled a front-foot no-ball on the third.

Hassan was then an instrumental part of Afghanistan's team for division three, taking three wickets in matches against both Papua New Guinea and Cayman Islands.

Afghanistan won the tournament and qualified for the World Cup Qualifier, returning to Afghanistan expecting a large crowd to receive them in Kabul.

"I am very excited about seeing them. When we won Division 4 in Tanzania there were lots of people at the airport. So as we have won Division 3, there will be even more people there, blocking the roads and celebrating by banging drums. I really enjoy the celebrations as we have such great fans. The people in Afghanistan pray for us and are waiting for the trophy to come home so we can all celebrate together."