That is one of the big things that he did really well. “They talk about bowling fitness, and he could bowl and bowl and bowl, and put it on the spot all day long. The weather becomes warm, especially in Napier. But during January-February, the pitches do turn a bit. In NZ, a spinner is seen as a guy who fills in when the fast bowlers are tired because the pitches are green and more seamer friendly. Another really good coach, Heinrich Malan, who is now the Auckland coach, was with CD and he basically mentored Ajaz in first-class cricket, making sure he got a lot of overs. By going to Central Districts, he opened up a lot of opportunities for himself. That was a really good move to go out of your comfort zone and try your career somewhere else. Ajaz realised that there’s not much opportunity here and went to Central Districts in 2009. Tarun Nethulla (leg-spinner who played five ODIs for NZ in 2012) was the frontline spinner.
Rowland said: “There was not much opportunity at the Auckland set up at that point of time. Formerly a Suburbs New Lynn CC player-coach, Rowland is currently in the dual capacity with Papatoetoe CC in Auckland Premier cricket. The 41-year-old Rowland said that the best thing to have happened to Ajaz was to move from Auckland to Central Districts (CD). The good quality about this boy is he works quite hard, is intelligent and hard-working boy. The confidence builds more with practice and understanding of your technique. He struggled initially for the first couple of months and slowly started to bowl a lot better. To be frank, he started off quite badly (as a spinner). The captain of the team, James Nolen, was also instrumental in us talking and deciding that we wanted to make sure that we took care of him rather than throw him in the deep end. We did this for the first half of the season. I did not want him to lose his confidence. I did not want to throw him in the deep end, and if he bowled badly, his game was finished. I guaranteed him and told him, ‘you are going to start with our Premier team, bowl five overs of pace with the new ball and in the middle overs, we’ll bring you in for spin’. “Once we convinced him, we took the decision, And, I had to back him because if we had to play him as a spinner, we had to drop him to our third or fourth team. It was a really hard challenge as to how do I get this guy to the next level?Ī Look at Ajaz Patel’s All 10 Wickets Through Images He may have played some good cricket (had he continued bowling fast) but I had a look at his potential and thought where it could go.
It was not like he was struggling with fast bowling. We all had a chat and it was a combined decision to change from pace to spin. Most of the credit in terms of his spin bowling technique goes to Dipak Patel (former New Zealand off-spinner). With my experience of playing good cricket, I could pick talent. Ajaz has an amazing cricketing mind and is always confident. “Our club did not have a left-arm spinner. Obviously, he had control over the ball and had a proper run up and action. He did have the drift even back then and could spin it. One of the big things with Ajaz was he had the real natural ability to swing the ball. I am not saying no one can bowl quick if they are short. Also, he had to work really hard on his fitness. He said: “One of the main things was his height. Rowland was the one who made Ajaz take up spin bowling.