When Moeen Ali’s chance encounter with Kumar Dharmasena turned around his bowling career

Chance and luck play a huge role in our lives. Despite us living in a civilized society aimed at reducing the improbability of a chaotic and uncaring universe, the outcome of any situation is never a guarantee. Take for instance, the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us who had well-settled, carefree lives have been thrown back into the pool of uncertainty, having to scramble, haggle, and come to terms with the cruel reality. Such is luck. When you consider that only at best 30 of the best at any given point of time make it to the top, the odds of success are depressingly low.

It is often the unexpected that surprises us - be it something that breaks our heart, or makes our lives - and changes the course creating a staunch reminder of the insignificance of all our plans. Moeen Ali had always seen himself as a batsman who could roll his arm over with handy off-spinners. Early in 2014, Moeen had feared that his chance at playing Test cricket for the three lions had passed him by. There were batsmen in the team - the likes of Joe Root and James Taylor - who had established themselves in the team. 

This is where the uncertainty of the world played its part in conspiring for Moeen. Graeme Swann had just announced an unexpected retirement from international cricket midway through a disastrous Ashes tour of Australia. But Moeen was hardly going to be an apt like-for-like replacement for a regular spinner - Moeen himself considered his bowling secondary to his batting prowess. There were spinners ahead of him, Monty Panesar and Scott Borthwick were two spinners Swann himself had earmarked as his possible successors. 

Moeen’s batting ability, the conditions in the English summer likely to assist seamers, and England’s opponents for the summer - India and Sri Lanka, two sub-continent teams -  perhaps again worked in Moeen’s favor and him getting the nod to play as the fifth bowling option alongside four seamers. His debut series managed to give little account of his abilities as a spinner. However, a spirited century in the second innings of the Test match at Leeds against Sri Lanka, one that Moeen would come agonizingly close to saving for England, would prove enough for the selectors to stick with him for the upcoming marquee series against India.

But, Moeen would need to prove his worth as a spinner if he were to garner any hopes of making a career playing in whites for England. While he was advised by Ian Bell that he would need to bowl quicker to be effective, Moeen was struggling to achieve that without sacrificing on his flight. Moeen would benefit from a chance encounter with the Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena who was a handy off-spinner in his playing days. “He advised me to grab my [left trouser] pocket with my non-bowling arm after delivery to get more body into my action without losing flight. I tried it for one ball and knew it would work immediately. It made a huge difference,” Moeen recalls. 

Perhaps Moeen would have benefited from the knowledge of Mushtaq Ahmed, but the latter lost his job as England’s spin bowling coach just before Moeen was to make his debut. Cut to two years later, Mushtaq recognizes the strides Moeen has taken as a spinner. In an interview with The Indian Express, Mushtaq says, “Just look at how his bowling has developed. He has great high-arm action, gets a lovely drift and can turn the ball. There are two kinds of spinners — one who turn the ball, and ones who can spin. The spinners are the ones who put a lot of revolution on the ball and the turners just get turn off the pitch. Moeen Ali is now a spinner. Asli ho gaya abhi(He has become authentic).”

Perhaps it was chance, perhaps it was all the factors that precariously bubbled to the surface that came together with the precision of a Swiss army knife that lead to Moeen’s international success as a cricketer. But, there’s no denying the fact that Moeen has had to work hard to reach where he is. Perhaps as the often overused saying goes, fortune does favor the brave.