Pakistan-born leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed yesterday had his bid for Australian citizenship accepted, making him eligible to play in the upcoming Ashes series against England.
The former refugee, 31, played for Australia A last month in England and selector John Inverarity has indicated he will be considered for the Ashes squad.
“It is a dream moment for me,” Ahmed said.
Photo: AFP
“I haven’t spoken to [my family] about today, but they’re really hopeful and they’re happy for me. I miss them a lot on this occasion, but I’m really pleased to be a citizen now,” he added.
Ahmed described his experience as “unbelievable.”
“The last four years here in Australia, I couldn’t wait to be a citizen, especially in the field of cricket,” he told reporters.
“I want to give back something to this country. I will try my best to be a good citizen and I will do my best for this country,” he added.
Ahmed returned from England last month after the Australian government moved amendments to the Citizenship Act through the upper house of parliament to help fast-track his application.
The legislation allows the immigration minister to apply shorter residential requirements on some citizenship applicants, such as elite athletes with the potential to represent Australia, as in Ahmed’s case.
Former Australian immigration minister Brendan O’Connor, who handled Ahmed’s case, said the last remaining formality was for the cricketer to attend a citizenship ceremony.
Ahmed thanked the government for its support.
“I was happy from last year when I got my residency, but it was still stressful because I wasn’t officially a citizen,” he said.
“It was a long journey ... thanks to minister ... and the whole government of Australia, they really helped me. It was not an easy job to change the law,” he added.
Ahmed has been named in the Australia A squad for a tour of Africa beginning later this month.
The opening Test of the five-match Ashes series starts in Nottingham on Wednesday next week, with Nathan Lyon the only spin bowler in Australia’s 16-man squad.
“If they definitely select me, it will be an honor to represent Australia in the Ashes or maybe other tournaments,” Ahmed said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier