EX-LANCASHIRE star Ronnie Irani is a rarity amongst Englishmen - he can claim a close friendship with Javed Miandad that has survived 20 years.

Former Pakistan captain Miandad, the man most cricketers have loved to hate, was given his big break in the game by Irani's father Jimmy in the mid 1970s.

Miandad - Pakistan's captain in 1987 when the last England tour here was disrupted by umpiring controversies and the Mike Gatting-Shakoor Rana row - might well pop up during the current England A tour - to meet the cricketer he once helped learn how to hold a bat.

Miandad, who plays in domestic cricket in Pakistan, despite losing his Test place more than a year ago, will have read with interest about Irani's match-winning 5-19 in England A's opening four-day fixture in Karachi.

Irani, like his father, began his cricketing career in the Bolton League before joining Lancashire - Ronnie with Heaton and Jimmy with Daisy Hill where he was long time skipper.

The 24-year-old Essex all-rounder, who hit hard with the bat as well as sending down lively medium-pace swingers, said: "It's been great to have such a good start to my first tour and my first taste of senior international cricket.

"I put it in the right spot and got wickets as a reward. I hope things continue to go for me because that's what these tours are all about - showing the England selectors what you can do. "I'm also hoping to get the chance to meet up with Javed now we've moved up here to Lahore, where he lives.

"I have known him since I was four. That's when he came over as a 16-year-old to play League cricket in Lancashire.

"My father, who was born in Bombay and himself had come to live in England to play League cricket some years before, had heard about him and arranged for Javed to be given a chance. His career took off from then, so I suppose you could say my father discovered him.

"He lived with us for two years, during English summers, and I remember him teaching me how to stand with a bat and how to hold it!

"I know he's not everyone's favourite by a long way, but he's a winner and his record over the years has been magnificent."

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