It is a sign of the times that of the twenty names put forward as a provisional list for the ECB National Academy to go to Australia at the end of the current season, two of them are from the British Asian community. It was not so very long ago that Asians did not feature on county staffs. Now there are only two or three that do not have representatives from within that community.

Looking further afield, it is not only in England that Asians are playing a prominent role in cricket development. In the emerging nations of the European Cricket Council, the game is being nurtured throughout the associate and affiliate members of ICC by Asians. They are at the heart of development programmes right across Europe and now the process has gone full circle in that Kent have recruited Amjad Khan, a fast-medium bowler and right hand batsman who is not of Anglo-Asian descent at all. He is Danish and first came to the county's attention when playing for Denmark against the Kent Cricket Board in the NatWest Trophy of 1999.

He has not yet been selected for the Academy - though many more performances like those he has been putting in of late and he could be there one day - but there is delight in Worcestershire and Northamptonshire that Kabir Ali and Monty Panesar respectively have been included on the shortlist.

Kabir Ali is a right-arm fast-medium bowler who hails from Birmingham. His early cricket was in club cricket in Warwickshire where his father Shabir Ali played club cricket, and he was then picked up by Worcestershire. He represented England Under 19s in both "Test" and one-day cricket and, still only 21 years of age, he has been making quite a name for himself by virtue of the best possible reason, namely taking wickets.

It was a process that started last season when he only played in four first-class matches but in that time took 14 wickets at 18.07 each, including five for 22 against Gloucestershire. That was the cheapest maiden five-wicket return for Worcestershire, and he seems to specialise in making an immediate impact. He took four for 29 on his Benson and Hedges Cup debut against Glamorgan in 2000 and took the gold award, in the same season that he recorded his maiden first-class fifty against Nottinghamshire.

He actually made his debut in 1999 with a single first-class match, played ten further games in 2000 when he appeared no more than a youngster who might or might not make it. Then he made definite progress in 2001 before his form and performances this season have marked him out as a definite prospect.

He has extended his best bowling figures to seven for 43 and has contributed with the bat as well, with his highest innings now standing at 51 not out. These are encouraging signs, for it is easy for a player to make an early impression and then fade. Kabir Ali, rather than fading, has made steady progress and has impressed as good a judge as Rod Marsh, the Head Coach of the National Academy.

If he does gain selection to party that eventually goes to Adelaide for the winter, his other career will have to be put on hold. In his spare time, and to boost his income, Kabir Ali works as a male model. Now there have been quite a few posers in the game, but Kabir Ali's posing is done strictly for the camera. When he gets his cricket kit on, he has consistently produced the goods to show that he has a genuine future in the game.

Northamptonshire's left-arm spinner Mudhsuden Singh Panesar (or "Monty" as he is known throughout the game) does not have any pretensions as a fashion model, but he has the potential to develop as a model for other left-arm orthodox spinners to follow.

He learned his cricket in Bedfordshire, having been born in Luton and going to Bedford Modern School. From there he went on to Loughborough University and with the close links between Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, he made his first-class county debut last season having played a couple of years of minor county cricket. Again, he made an immediate impact with match figures of eight for 131 on his debut against Leicestershire with four for 11 in the second innings from 20 overs. In the first innings of that match he had to bowl at Shahid Afridi as he reached a century off 74 balls and went on to 164. Panesar did not suffer too badly, for although his four wickets cost 120 runs, they were scored off 35 overs.

This was all part of the learning process that saw him feature in the England Under 19 side for two seasons. His has not been a rapid rise to the top, for by the start of this season he had bowled just over 100 overs in his two first-class matches. He has played in one more so far this season, taking his workload to 117.3 overs in three first-class matches, with 13 wickets at 31.53 each.

Those might not appear to spectacular figures, but there is a classical, timeless quality about his bowling action that suggests he might not go the way of so many of his type and suffer an attack of the 'yips'. Certainly he has done enough to impress the selectors and if he does make it to Adelaide for the winter, watch out for the name of Monty Panesar establishing himself as one of the best spin bowling prospects in English cricket.

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