While it is great that everyone seems to be on board USA cricket now as the game is taking off in Uncle Sam’s land, one must give credit where it is due and for this, a lot of praise must go to Mahammad Maq Qureshi.
At times no one wanted to hear about USA cricket but Maq relentlessly continued to build. He believed when others walked away. Not seeing eye to eye with the administration he decided to keep the game alive by bringing on board the US Open T20 tournament.
This was the first taste of international competition that domestic cricketers got. Maq spent his money to bring in foreign players to take part in the US Open T20. When you speak to international cricketers they will tell you that their first foray into US cricket came at the US Open.
If one takes a look at the career of Muhammad Ali Khan they will know just how much this great cricket lover has done for the sport. Ali Khan the US star came to back many years back as an unknown and told him that he wanted to further his career. Khan, through hard work and support from Maq was able to turn his attention fully to cricket and started to develop nicely.
A couple of years ago Maq decided to bring up Dwayne Bravo from Trinidad to play in the US Open T20 tournament for the US All Stars and this is where things ignited for Khan. Bravo playing with Khan on the same team saw the potential of the young man and took him to the GT20 in Canada. Ali performed and with constant encouragement and support from Maq the Ohio man was taken to the CPL by Bravo to play with TKR. Ali had spent a lot of time on the bench at the Amazon Warriors but Maq thought he was better than that and was not getting his just due.
He asked Bravo to take a close look at Ali and from match one he was on the starting XI of the successful TKR franchise. The rest is history but it just showed a glimpse of the care that Maq has for USA cricket.
Tomorrow we take in part 2 when Maq actually managed the USA team.
