Hameed Hassan

Hassan was born in 1987. He was the second of three sons; his older brother was Rashid and his younger brother was Shamshad. When Hassan was six years old, his family fled fighting in their home district of Bati Kot near Jalalabad, Afghanistan to go to Pakistan as refugees. They lived in a refugee camp Peshawar, where Hassan learned to play cricket on the streets with a taped tennis ball from his older brother Rashid. Cricket had a stigma among his people, and when his grades started to suffer at school as a result of cricket, his parents tried to stop him from playing, but he continued to play in secret. Hassan joined a cricket club in 2002 and got selected for a team to go to the ACC Under 17 Trophy in 2003.

Hassan weighed nearly 18 stone (110 kg), but after watching the 2005 Ashes series on TV and being inspired by Andrew Flintoff, he lost weight until he was down to 13 stone (83 kg) so that he could bowl fast. In March 2006, Hassan played a match for Afghanistan against a Marylebone Cricket Club team led by Mike Gatting in Mumbai. Afghanistan thrashed MCC by 179 runs, and Hassan took the wicket of Gatting. He was subsequently invited to join MCC Young Cricketers. At 20 years of age, Hassan became the first Afghanistani to play cricket at Lord’s. He played for the Marylebone Cricket Club in a match against a European XI in June 2007. He bowled with good control at over 145 kilometres per hour (90 mph), with Mike Gatting calling him a “huge potential”.

In 2009, Hassan signed to play for Skegness Cricket Club for six seasons in the Lincolnshire Premier League. He took 7/53 in his debut match, but after the 2009 season he didn't play for Skegness again.

Hassan took two wickets against Bermuda, and Afghanistan progressed from the group stage of the tournament to the Super Eights. Opening the bowling against Ireland, Hassan took five wickets. He dismissed William Porterfield early, then removed Ireland’s two established batsmen Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien in consecutive overs before taking two more wickets in Ireland’s tail. Four of his five wickets came bowled. His bowling performance was enough to give Afghanistan a 22-run win, causing a massive upset over the team who went on to win the tournament. Hassan was far less successful in the next match against Canada, conceding 32 runs in three overs. Afghanistan lost to Canada and their chances of qualifying for the World Cup were virtually over. Hassan finished the tournament with 3/37 against Namibia and 3/26 against Scotland, and though they didn’t qualify for the World Cup, Afghanistan did achieve official One Day International status for the next four years. In 2010, Hassan compared Afghanistan's rise through the ranks of international cricket with the film Rocky.

Hassan was a crucial part of the Afghanistan team in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier as their specialist death bowler, bowling the final overs of most matches. He took wickets throughout the tournament and played an important role in Afghanistan’s wins over Scotland, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Afghanistan won the tournament and qualified for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, and Hassan himself took 12 wickets throughout the tournament at a bowling average of just 11.14.

In March 2011 he was called up by the Marylebone Cricket Club to represent them in the Champion County match against Nottinghamshire. He was impressive with the ball, taking seven wickets for the match, but his most entertaining performance was with the bat. He came out at number 11 in MCC's first innings and hit his first three deliveries for four. He scored 26 runs from 14 deliveries before being dismissed.

Following the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which Afghanistan did not qualify for, Hassan played with Afghanistan in both the 2011–13 ICC Intercontinental Cup and the 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, which ran simultaneously to each other. After playing cricket against domestic teams in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, these tournaments began for Afghanistan in Canada in August 2011. Afghanistan batted first in the Intercontinental Cup match, and were bowled out for 293 before the end of the first day. Afghanistan then had 12 overs to bowl to Canada before the end of the day, and Hassan managed to take four wickets for 12 runs before stumps. He followed this up the next day with 3 more wickets to achieve figures of 7/61, his best ever first-class bowling figures. Hassan then took three early wickets in Canada's second innings to record his third ten-wicket haul, and he was named the player-of-the match in a nine-wicket win.

Hassan is a lower-order batsman with a very low batting average in international cricket. Despite a general lack of success with the bat, he has played good batting innings. He scored 26 runs off of just 14 balls in the 2011 Champion County match, and he scored 22 runs in a match in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, the second-highest score for Afghanistan in the innings.

Hassan was selected to play for a combined Associate and Affiliate XI in a tour match against England in Dubai in January 2012. Hassan took two early wickets in England's first innings, but on the second day he fell over the boundary fence and injured himself, causing him to miss the rest of the match. Though he was initially cleared of any serious damage, the knee injury kept him out of international cricket until he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20, where due to fitness concerns he was still unable to play any matches.

Hassan signed to play with the Barisal Burners in the 2012 season for $40,000 but his injuries meant he was unable to play. He signed again for the 2013 season for the same salary.

Hassan returned to good bowling form in the latter half of 2013, with impressive bowling performances in limited overs cricket against Namibia and Kenya as Afghanistan secured qualification for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. His return to form was expected to make him a key player in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, and Afghanistan went into the tournament as favourites to win it, but his knee injury flared up again after playing just one match and he missed the rest of the tournament. He was replaced in Afghanistan's squad by Izatullah Dawlatzai and they still qualified for the World Twenty20 without Hassan. Hassan was named in Afghanistan's squad for both the 2014 Asia Cup and the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, but his knee injury continued to cause problems and he missed more matches.

Hassan again returned from injury in December 2014 for an ODI series against the UAE, and he took 5 for 45 in the fourth match of the series. This gave Afghanistan the confidence to include him in their squad for the 2015 Cricket World Cup despite his proneness to injury. Hassan opened the bowling in Afghanistan's opening match against Bangladesh, bowling Afghanistan's first ever ball in a World Cup match. He was able to keep Bangladesh's openers slow at the start of the match, but he finished the match with expensive figures of 2/61 and Afghanistan lost by 105 runs. Hassan's bowling was fast and precise against Sri Lanka. He dismissed Kumar Sangakkara early with a delivery that swung in from outside off to bowl him, celebrating with a cartwheel and leaving Sri Lanka at 3/18. Hassan then bowled two consecutive deliveries past the edge of Dimuth Karunaratne's bat before having him caught at slip at 4/51. Hassan took three wickets in total, and for most of the match it looked like Afghanistan could win, but late in the innings Thisara Perera hit a very quick 47 runs from 26 balls to get Sri Lanka across the line. Hassan gained international notoriety after this match because he celebrated taking the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara with a cartwheel.

Hassan played Afghanistan's first three matches in the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, taking six wickets across the three matches, but he limped off the field after bowling the 19th over against Scotland and missed Afghanistan's subsequent two matches, both of which were losses. He returned to the side for a win against Papua New Guinea, which put Afghanistan into the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. Due to a thigh injury, Hassan was not able to represent Afghanistan again until the World Twenty20 itself, missing all matches between the two tournaments. He was ineffective at the World Twenty20, only playing four of Afghanistan's seven matches and taking three wickets.

Hassan is a right-arm fast bowler. At times he has been measured bowling over 145 kilometres per hour (90 mph). In the 2015 Cricket World Cup he took the wickets of world-class batsmen such as Kumar Sangakkara, causing problems with his pace and swing. He took 50 wickets in his first 26 One Day Internationals, making him the sixth fastest player of all time to reach 50 ODI wickets.

Hassan was last selected to play for the national team in a T20I series against Zimbabwe in February 2018, but he again got injured in the team's training camp in Sharjah and was advised to rest. He last played an international match for his national team in July 2016. He was attempting to return to the national team in time to play in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In April 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The International Cricket Council (ICC) named him as one of the five surprise picks for the tournament.

Hassan's house in Jalalabad was targeted by a grenade attack in February 2018. Hassan was unharmed in the attack. Hassan's family claimed that the attack came in the wake of criminal groups demanding money from the family. The Afghanistan Cricket Board stated that the attack was carried out by criminal groups, not by terrorists.