After the long-standing and highly-successful club Captain, Mike Beard, stood down at the end of the 2021 season, TTCC was lucky to be able to call on Hassam Mushtaq – or “Hass” as he is affectionately known – to captain the 1st XI for 2022.
Hass was born in Karachi, Pakistan and has lived in the UK since 2012, when he was 20. He first joined Thame in 2013 and has been a cornerstone of the side ever since. The team’s highlights have included being undefeated champions of Cherwell Division 1 in 2015 and winning the Home Counties Premier League, Division 2 (HCPL) for the first time ever in 2017, to ascend to the top level of cricket in the region.
The career of Hass to date contains many highlights that are not known to all members of the club:- he played first-class cricket for the combined Oxford Universities, while studying at Oxford Brookes in 2016; he has served as a net bowler on numerous occasions for the England, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan test teams with his outstanding leg-spin bowling; he has been the 1st XI’s top wicket-taker for 6 out of the past 8 seasons. Hass also has the home changing-room, in the new clubhouse, named after him as the ‘Mushtaq Room”. This followed a challenge from the ex-Chair, Matt Swain, to any player scoring a ton or taking 5 wickets.
Hass has also recently been playing T20 cricket in the USA alongside well-known Caribbean stars such as Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin, Kesrick Williams and many more.
As well as being a commanding figure in the past and present of the club, Hass also takes a real interest in developing the youth of the club – he earned his ECB Level 2 coaching qualification in 2015 and is always happy to pass on his knowledge to aspiring spin bowlers and help young batters better to play spin.
