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India v/s England: Diversity in England team exciting, something we are proud of: Zafar Ansari

The ECB acknowledged this and promised to work and put strategies to identify and engage with 10,000 Asian cricketers by 2017

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Zafar Ansari (second from right), Adil Rashid (left) and Moeen Ali (right) are three of the four British Muslims in the England squad currently touring India
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South Asian community in England loves cricket. And that can be gauged from the audience turn out for an India or a Pakistan game there.

Yet not many play the game professionally.

Picture this: In 2014, England and Wales Cricket Board carried out a survey that showed that 30 per cent from the South Asian background take part in grassroots cricket in England.

However, the figure showed a disappointing drop to six per cent in terms of appearance in the first-team county cricket.

The ECB acknowledged this and promised to work and put strategies to identify and engage with 10,000 Asian cricketers by 2017.

Forward to 2016: England has four Asian origin cricketers in the England team to take on India in one of the most high profile series. All-rounder Moeen Ali, leg spinner Adil Rashid, left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari and the young Haseeb Hameed are now part of the squad taking on Virat Kohli and Co in India.

While there have been quite a few players of India and Pakistani origins in the past who have gone on to represent England at the highest level, the instance of four Asians at a time is rare.
From Ranjitsinji, the first Asian to represent England in 1896, to the 19-year-old Hameed, who is of Indian origin, overall 32 Asian origin players have worn the three lions cap.

Ansari acknowledged the racial diversity in the England team in a presser on Tuesday. "I think as a collective, for a group, for British-Musims there is something in that. There is no doubt about that. That's really exciting and something we are proud of. Lots of people outside of the group clearly care about that and value that. I think that's a good thing in our society," said Ansari.

The left-arm spinner was modest though. "From a personal point of view, I wouldn't hold myself up too much as a role model at least in that...I'm from a very privileged background."

"I don't necessarily challenge norms in a particularly obvious sort of way, even in a superficial way. I wouldn't necessarily categorise myself in sort of breaking the boundaries or anything.

"I think Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Haseeb all of them are doing a wonderful job representing, if they are representing, their communities. And I think that it is not easy, playing even if it means just being themselves is not the easiest thing to do. They do that, they do that really well," said Ansari, who was awarded a double-first degree by Cambridge University, and in 2016 completed a 40,000 word Masters dissertation on the 1960s American civil rights group, the Deacons for Defense and Justice.

Ansari played for Surrey in County cricket that had Murali Kartik and then Pragyan Ojha in 2011. He was inspired by the way the latter bowled.

"I think having Pragyan Ojha for four games in 2011 was actually quite formative. Because he just came in and took wickets for fun, in England, which is quite difficult for a spinner. I think the way he bowled, his action, is something I watched quite closely and learnt a lot from.

"And then having Kartik again was similar. His approach, the way he spent time at the crease to get all those sorts of things that he does. Again I watched, I tried to learn from," said Ansari, whose father Professor Khizar Humayun Ansari is of Pakistan descent and mother Sarah is English.

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