Yasir Arafat (cricketer)

Yasir Arafat Satti (born 12 March 1982 in Rawalpindi, Punjab) is a Pakistani cricketer. He bats right-handed and bowls right-arm medium pace.

International career

Having previously represented his country at Under-15 level, he made his ODI debut for Pakistan in 2000 when he was 17 years old against Sri Lanka in Karachi and took his first wicket in this match. He played just one more match the following year before being dropped. He was given a second chance at international cricket in the last ODI against England in December 2005 and was retained for the series against India in February 2006, but was left out of the ODI squad for the subsequent tour in England. His next chance at international cricket came in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy when he was one of the players called up to the Pakistan squad for the Champions Trophy to replace Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif who had both failed drug tests.

In March 2007, he and Mohammad Sami were called up as replacements in Pakistan's squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup after Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were ruled out through injury.

On 8 December 2007, Arafat made his Test match debut for Pakistan against India in Bangalore in the third and final Test of the series. He displayed his all-round abilities by taking 7 wickets in the match including a 5-wicket haul, and scoring a useful 44 in the first innings.

It has been reported (2nd August, 2008, Hindustan Times, Karachi) that he has signed with the Kolkata Knight Riders to play in the second season of the Indian Premier League 20/20 tournament in 2009.

Domestic career

In English domestic cricket, he was signed as an overseas player for Scotland as a replacement for Rahul Dravid, and played for them in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. He was signed as an overseas player for Sussex for the 2006 season to line-up alongside fellow countrymen Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, and helped the team to win the double of the County Championship and the C&G Trophy as well as mount a serious challenge in the Pro40 League. He was signed up to play for Kent in the 2007 season.

The Kent fans seem to have immediately taken to Arafat. At their recent Friends Provident Trophy game against Surrey at The Brit Oval they often chanted of 'There's only one Yasir Arafat', later on, as a pun, 'There's only two Yasir Arafat's'. Others included 'We've nicked your tea towel', also in jest.

In 2004, Arafat performed the extremely rare feat of taking five wickets in six balls for Rawalpindi against the national champions Faisalabad in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. This had only been achieved three times previously in the entire history of first-class cricket, by Bill Copson in 1937, William Henderson in 1938, and Pat Pocock in 1972. Arafat was the only bowler to take the wickets spread over two innings.

Arafat is an old fashioned seam bowler and is able to swing the ball both to and from the batsman.

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