AUCKLAND // Back in 2003, when wanderlust first grabbed Imran Tahir and led him to England to try to make a profession from cricket, he was offered a chance with Middlesex in the county game.
His debut was set to be aired live on Sky television. A one-day knockout match in May, against a Northamptonshire side including Mike Hussey and Graeme Swann, among other less luminous names.
Sounds a grand occasion, doesn’t it? Hardly. The TV audience only numbered in the hundreds, and there were not many more there in the flesh, either.
His side won by 26 runs defending a mere 214. He bowled 10 wicketless overs for 41, which was considered expensive in the context of the game.
Cricket has clearly changed out of sight since then, and so, too, has Tahir. He did not have the frosted highlights, the spiky hair, or the beard back then. And he was still a long way from being South African, as well.
The point of referencing that match is he was, by all accounts, a bundle of nerves before he took the field. Even though it was a low-key fixture, in front of not much more than two men and a Jack Russell Terrier.
Twelve years on, he is going to be a central figure in a match played on opposition territory, with 40,000 in the stands at Eden Park, as well as millions watching on TV.
Faced with the musclemen of New Zealand and their unpressed, high-powered bats, defending modest straight boundaries, with a place in the World Cup final at stake, he is going to need nerves of steel on Tuesday.
Tahir has broad shoulders now, though. He has the benefit of a lengthy professional career to draw on, including stints in the Indian Premier League and four years as an international player.
Tahir has without question become a big-match player, if statistics are a guide. Of his 70 ODI wickets, 29 have come in World Cup matches.
He has gone wicketless in only one of the 13 matches he has played in 50-over cricket’s showpiece event, and that counted for little as they thrashed Ireland in Canberra anyway.
Tahir took four wickets, including the talisman Mahela Jayawardene, and was the man of the match as South Africa ended their World Cup knockout struggles against Sri Lanka to reach this point.
To escape the chokers tag, some have mischievously said, they needed to import a Pakistani to do the business.
Tahir did, after all, play 16 one-day internationals for Pakistan’s Under 19s at the start of his career. Do not doubt his allegiance now, though.
“I think I am more South African than Pakistani now,” Tahir said after taking five wickets in a Test match in Dubai in October 2013.
“I am really honoured to be playing for South Africa. I appreciate what I have got from South Africa, and I will always remember that till the day I die. The country will never be forgotten from my heart.”
Tahir even used his love for his adopted country as the reason to explain his manic wicket celebrations, after the quarter-final win over Sri Lanka in Sydney.
“It is just because I want to enjoy everything I do for this team,” said Tahir, who will celebrate his 36th birthday on Friday, two days before the final in Melbourne.
“This is a dream, you know. Because maybe there is a million people who do not have this opportunity I have.
“To play for this team is just an absolute honour, and I think every wicket I take is just for South Africa. It has just given me such joy.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @NatSportUAE
The biog
Fatima Al Darmaki is an Emirati widow with three children
She has received 46 certificates of appreciation and excellence throughout her career
She won the 'ideal mother' category at the Minister of Interior Awards for Excellence
Her favourite food is Harees, a slow-cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled wheat berries mixed with chicken
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US' most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was first created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out projectiles, namely ballistic missiles, as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles both inside and outside of the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 93 miles above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then deployed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
