The Muslim members of England’s and Australia’s dressing rooms will come together on the first morning of the Test to celebrate Eid at Lord’s.
The MCC have arranged for an Imam from the Regent’s Park Mosque to come to the ground at 8am and lead the players and support staff in their prayers for the religious celebration before the game gets underway.
For England that means Moeen Ali and Rehan Ahmed will be joined by their security officer Yasser Ali, while an invitation was extended to Aussie batter Usman Khawaja and their liaison officer Arfan Akram to take part in the multi-faith room at the ground.
“It is Eid on Wednesday, so we’ve got an Imam coming into Lord’s,” said Moeen. “In the past I’ve missed it, and even Friday prayers I’ve missed if I’m playing in a game.
“It is nice for someone to come in and do this like it happens in South Africa. There have been quite a few muslims in their team and management so they have someone come in on a Friday and I’ve always thought that is a nice touch. I’ve joined them for that in the past so it is nice that we can do this here.
“It is great for us because we can feel like we’ve done our duty as a muslim first of all and then for our country by going out and playing. I think it is great.”
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Moeen has practised his faith as much as possible while representing England, with his team-mates often enquiring about things like fasting and his hajj to Mecca, something also done by Adil Rashid during last summer.
“Since I’ve been playing, I was always a bit shy to ask for things initially, such as when I was fasting, but the team and the ECB have been really good.
“We all know there is lots more work to be done, and the ICEC report makes that very clear.
“I know this is a small thing and not that important to a lot of people but to us it is very important.”
