Meet Danial Ibrahim: The Youngest Cricketer to Make a Half-Century in the History of the County Championship
By Tim Wigmore
How was your half-term? When Danial Ibrahim came back to school on Monday morning, he had a better answer than most.
On Thursday, Ibrahim became the second-youngest first-class debutant in Sussex’s history. On Friday, he became, at the age of 16 years and 298 days, the youngest cricketer to make a half-century in the 131-year history of the County Championship when he made 55 against Yorkshire.
“I don’t think too much about it but it’s pretty cool to be breaking history,” Ibrahim says. At school - he is in lower sixth at Bede's School in Eastbourne, where he got a sports scholarship - “quite a few people knew,” he smiles. “It was pretty weird going back.”
Last Monday, while playing a T20 game for Sussex second XI, Ibrahim had learned that he might be required to play for Sussex in Leeds. After training at Hove with the first-team squad the next day, Ian Salisbury, the head coach, told him: “You're in, you're travelling.”
“I was shocked when I first found out,” Ibrahim recalls.
In front of a healthy crowd at Headingley on Thursday morning, Ibrahim was handed his Sussex cap by former England player Matt Prior. “It was quite a surreal experience. He said you deserve to be here, just be confident in how you play.”
With Sussex an uncertain 175-5, Ibrahim walked out to bat for the first time in professional cricket. He calmly flicked his first delivery, from England one-day international bowler David Willey, off his pads to get off the mark.
“I was quite nervous when I was walking out. There was quite a big crowd in as well so luckily I got off the first ball so everything kind of settled down for me. I just tried to concentrate on every ball and kind of forget everything else.”
Ibrahim reached 37 not out overnight, within sight of his maiden Championship half-century and, though he didn’t know it, making history. “I slept really well, I was quite happy with how I did but you’ve got to start again the next day.”
A quick single to the on-side seemed to have taken Ibrahim to 49 - but an overthrow allowed him to return for a second run, and so reach his 50, an innings sprinkled with attractive drives and efficient clips. “It's quite hard to explain. I was batting with Jack Carson and he said just soak everything in like this whole crowd - they're clapping for you and what you've done in this game so just try and soak it all in.”
Proudly watching in the stands were his mother Zuni and father Kashif, a former first-class cricketer in Pakistan. Danial’s parents had not planned to attend, but Prior convinced Kashif to go, telling him, “my mum missed my debut, and you don't want to miss his.”
As Zuni saw Danial walk out to the crease, “I think I cried so many times,” she recalls. “I’m always a nervous watcher.
“We see the passion in him ever since he was a baby, he's watched his dad play. And we were getting messages from all our friends saying he's been on the sidelines since when he was a baby, watching his dad play. Here he is with all the passion. He's put all his hard work towards it and seeing his name, it was just an amazing feeling.”
Naturally, only more cricket would take Zuni and Kashif away from Leeds. They had to leave after the second day to take their younger son, who is in the Sussex age-group program, to a game on Saturday. “We are literally a cricket-mad family,” Zuni says. Indeed, Zuni and Kashif met through the game: Kashif was the overseas professional at Read Cricket Club in Burnley, where Zuni’s brother played.
“My mum always used to go and watch him,” Danial recalls. “Whenever he used to have time he always used to throw balls at me and we used to just practice from such a young age and I just always continued playing it.”
From the age of 10, he was in the Sussex pathway, but father and son have continued playing together: Kashif captains Preston Nomads. “He gives me quite a lot of advice when we're playing, he knows quite a lot about the game, he knows what I should do and when I should do it. It's quite good having him around.” When Danial made his maiden first-team century for Preston Nomads, last year, his father was batting at the other end.
After making 55 in Sussex’s first innings at Yorkshire, Danial - who describes himself as a batting all-rounder - took a wicket with his medium pace, although he made a duck in Sussex’s second innings as they fell to defeat. Still, it was a most auspicious start to life in the professional game for a player whose sights are high. “Probably Ben Stokes,” Danial says when asked about his cricketing hero. “I see myself as potentially someone who could be the next one.” - The Telegraph
