Cricket: Saqlain's an honorary Kiwi

Former Pakistan cricketer and now New Zealand spin bowling coach Saqlain Mushtaq says it is a big honour to be with the Kiwis. Photo / NZPA

If Saqlain Mushtaq feels divided loyalties as he helps New Zealand prepare for the first test against his countrymen he hides it well.

The former Pakistani offspinner, now sporting a long beard, is working with New Zealand's players, both the spin bowlers and giving the batsmen tips on how to play the twirly stuff.

He knows his oats. Saqlain, still only 32, was an outstanding bowler who took 208 wickets in 49 tests and a whopping 288 ODI wickets in 169 games at just 21.78 apiece in a nine-year career which ended prematurely four years ago.

Saqlain is credited with being the first spinner to master the doosra, the delivery which looks to the batsman like an offspinner, but instead turns away from the bat.

"People are saying 'what are you feeling'?" Saqlain said yesterday. "But that is our religion. Where you are working you have to be 100 per cent honest and it is a big honour for me to be with the Kiwis."

He admitted his old friend, Pakistan's captain Mohammad Yousuf, has been pulling his leg over his switch of allegiance for the series.

"They gave me a bit, but they were all very happy. They all understand that this is a game, and it is part of my job."

Saqlain toured New Zealand in 2001, taking eight wickets to spin Pakistan to a huge 299-run win at Eden Park, then hitting his only test century, 101 not out, at Christchurch later in the series, when his former roommate Yousuf made 203.

He has talked through aspects of Pakistan's game and what New Zealand might expect in terms of where they will bowl and batting strengths and weaknesses.

"I am giving the psyche of how the bowler feels when they bowl to batsmen and how they work, how they see the feet movement, is he picking me or not," Saqlian said.

"Whatever information I had I pass on to them. I had to. If we wear it [pointing at the silver fern on his sweater] and it is on my heart, then my heart should be 100 per cent in place."

Saqlain will leave New Zealand just before the second test starts in Wellington next week.