Adnan Ghani is one of the most feared fast bowlers in Yorkshire club cricket.
He helped Hoylandswaine to the Huddersfield Premiership title last season with 44 wickets and began this campaign with six in a win over Broad Oak on Saturday. For his previous club Denby, he took ten wickets on debut – breaking the league record.
He is also deaf and helped his home nation of Pakistan win the Deaf World Cup.
Swaine captain SP Singh said: “Adnan is my main bowler. He’s got good pace and he gets a lot of wickets. He’s an amazing person for what he can achieve with his disability. We don’t really think about it because we’re all so used to playing with him. He’s a very clever and reliable bowler so you don’t need to talk to him much during the game.
“When I need to talk to him, I can understand him because I’ve played with him for three years now. When you’re batting with him and running between the wickets, you can’t shout like with other players so you have to look at his face and his hands.
“But it is OK. He is a very handy batsman and, even though he comes in lower in the order, he won us some games last season with his batting.”
On Saturday, Ghani took six for 48 to bowl league visitors Broad Oak out for 153 then Singh carried his bat with 70 and Chris Holliday made 57 not out in the nine-wicket win.
On Sunday, Swaine started their run in the Heavy Woollen Cup with victory over Woodlands who beat them in the 2015 and 2017 finals. Swaine raced to 274 with Waqas Maqsood blasting 57 off just 26 balls, with six sixes, after made Holliday added 51.
Durham CC batter Alex Lees hit 48 two days after playing in the One Day Cup against Leicestershire who fielded his Swaine team-mate Arron Lilley. Maqsood completed a superb game with three wickets as Woodlands were all out for 179.
Singh said: “It was a very good start to the season. We’re really pleased to win in the Heavy Woollen Cup because we lost three finals in a row then the semi-final last season. It would be massive for us to win that trophy.
"We had an excellent team last season, losing just one game in the league. But I think we have an even better team this season and we’ll be looking to win every competition.”
