Brim Full of Passion

Adult, sports autobiography, printed in Large Print. Brim Full of Passion follows the story of Wasim Khan's journey to becoming the first British born Asian to play professional cricket. Eight-year-old Wasim Khan yanks a board out of the garden fence, nicks his Mum's only decent knife, and starts whittling. A month later he's putting his first bat to good use: sending the school's tennis balls high onto the roof so that he can sneak back over the gate at night and liberate them. Brim Full of Passion follows this son of Kashmiri immigrants from the grimy streets of Small Heath to leafy Edgbaston, where he breaks in through the fence to watch England play Pakistan. A year later he's there legitimately, batting for the under-13s. The dream is simple: Warwickshire, England, the world. After four gruelling years as an apprentice pro he makes the all-conquering Bears team of 1995, and is on the brink of the England 'A' squad. But a loss of form, a dodgy selection policy, and one of the first British-born Asians to make the country grade loses his confidence. A move to Sussex is a disaster: he falls out with captain Chris Adams, can't get a game, and winds up playing for Derbyshire for nothing. At 30 it's all over and he's embarking on a new career as a coach. Anything to stay in the game he loves.