Access All Areas: In conversation with Haroon Irshad

Those are the words of Walmley Cricket Club’s Haroon Irshad when asked about his experiences on the Access programme at Warwickshire CCC so far.

For Haroon – or The Autistic Cricketer as he’s more commonly known on his various social media channels – the opportunity to join the disability cricket programme at his boyhood club first arose in 2023 following a recommendation from fellow Warwickshire cricketer Daniel Lamb, a key member of the Bears’ Access side that lifted the national Super 9’s trophy in August of that same season.

Since those early days on the programme three summers ago, the 25-year-old has since emerged as one of the integral pillars in the middle order of the West Midlands outfit’s batting unit, having already produced crucial innings of 37 and 55 against Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively in the North and Midlands group of the 2026 D40 Pursuit.

Given the fact that he’s been in such great form with the bat recently, and also because he’s such a top individual to speak to, I thought that now would be as good time as any to speak to the Birmingham native about his cricketing journey to date as well as his future aspirations with the Warwickshire Access team heading into the remainder of 2026 and beyond. Here’s what he had to say:

Haroon, thank you so much for taking the time to chat to us today. Let’s kickstart our conversation with a certified classic of a question here at The Bear, what are your earliest memories of cricket, either playing or watching the game?

I think my earliest memories would have been playing cricket in the back garden with my Dad or with my uncle Suleaiman at my Nan and my Granddad’s house. My Dad’s always been a huge cricket fan, so it was natural for him to teach me about the game and show me how to play it I guess! Then when it comes to watching cricket, I was a bit too young for the 2005 Ashes, but I remember watching a bit of the 2007 World Cup with my uncle at our old house so, yeah, those would be my first memories I reckon.

And who would you say was your biggest cricketing inspiration during those formative years?

Yeah, I’d have to say that it was my Dad, Shohab. As a young kid, I was pretty impressionable, so when he told me all of these great stories from his time in the Birmingham League with Bourneville Cricket Club – like this one game where he hit a rapid West Indian fast bowler down the ground for six with the first ball he faced - I found it to be really inspiring, and it made me want to play the game even more as I was growing up. We also had a bit of a running joke together whenever we watched Rana Naved play on the TV at home because when I was a kid, I thought it was my Dad playing with a secret nickname instead! That always makes us laugh when it gets brought up.

In addition to my Dad though, my uncle Suleaiman has always been a big help too. He’s got his own cricket coaching business called SI Coaching and he’s really helped with the more technical side of my game over the years, so it would definitely be those two when it comes to my biggest inspirations.

If we were to fast forward a bit from those earliest days spent playing cricket in the back garden with your family Haroon, can you remember the first time that you visited Edgbaston for a Bears game?

Yeah, you’re going to like this one, it was Finals Day 2014. As a bit of background, I had been mentioning to my uncle the day before that I really wanted to go and see the Bears and he told me that we’d got some seats in the [RES] Wyatt Stand for the day. They were really good seats and the view was amazing, so every time that something comes up on the socials from that year’s Finals Day, I always tag him in it because we had such a great time.

Watching Freddie Flintoff in his last game for Lancashire was pretty special as well because he was one of my absolute favourite cricketers growing up; he was just such a cool and entertaining guy to watch, and he had a really good game in that final too, especially with the bat. Seeing the Bears win the Blast for the first time in front of a big crowd was amazing though, so I’ll always have really fond memories from that day at Edgbaston.

Off the back of that previous question, who’s your all-time favourite Warwickshire player?

Oh, that's a very difficult question…

The obvious answer would be Chris Woakes; I’ve been a massive supporter of his since I was about 9 or 10 years old. There’s also the likes of Moeen Ali and Imran Tahir who have represented us at different stages of their careers but for me, it’s got to be Woakesy. He also played for my club side, Walmley, so he’s got that going for him as well!

That's a top choice right there, you can't go wrong with the Wizard. If we were to shift our focus from those cricketing idols and their time at Warwickshire though Haroon, how did you get involved with the Bears access team in the first place?

Yeah, it’s an interesting story really. I was at a training session with my university team and one of the lads there - Daniel Lamb - had never played cricket before. I started speaking to him a bit more and he mentioned that he had autism, which was something that I could relate to. After about a year or so, he decided to step away from the uni team, but we still kept in touch on a regular basis, and one day he messaged me out of the blue to see if I’d be interested in joining the Access team at Warwickshire.

I’ve got to be honest, when he first mentioned it, I had absolutely no clue what it was. Then when he mentioned that it was a disability cricket team, I was a bit hesitant to give it a try because I didn’t want to categorise or label the cricket that I played. Anyway, after going through everything a bit more, he gave me the email of the club’s disability cricket officer, Rob Eynon, and after sending a quick introduction about my playing experience at Walmley and at uni, I got a response around 30 minutes later saying that they’d love me to come down for their next training session. I went for a net with the rest of the team, absolutely loved it, and I haven’t looked back since!

And for those who may not already be familiar with the programme itself, what is the Warwickshire Access team and which competitions do you compete in?

In short, the Warwickshire Access team is a mixed disability cricket side that includes cricketers from local catchment areas like Birmingham, Walsall, Coventry and even parts of the wider West Midlands like Worcestershire and Staffordshire.

As a team, we’ve got players with things like autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, Asperger's as well as physical impairments which require the use of prosthetic limbs. For the learning disability players, like myself, there’s a requirement that you have to have had your diagnosis for a certain number of years before you’re fully eligible to play in the competitions, but everyone’s made to feel really welcome from the moment they have their first net session.

Speaking of those competitions, the one that I play in is called the D40 and the Warwickshire Access team currently competes in the North and West Division of what’s known as the Pursuit. We usually play on a rotation of one game every 2-4 weeks and it’s a pink ball tournament, so it tends to suit players who are used to playing with a hard ball in club cricket. In addition to the D40, you’ve also got the Super 9’s which is more suited to players who don’t have as much club cricket experience because they’re 30-over games that are played with an Incrediball so it’s a good way for people who might not be comfortable with the hard ball to still play some competitive cricket against other counties.

Finally, you’ve got the Super 1’s which is a more festival-style competition – also with the Incrediball - and the games are played on slightly smaller pitches, which gives it a more friendly feel compared to the other ones.

Even though we don’t all play in the same tournaments, we’re still one big family who just play for the love of the game and it’s been a great way to make some new friends as well.

You mentioned the diagnosis requirements for the learning disability cricketers on the programme during that latest passage Haroon, if you don’t mind me asking, when were you initially diagnosed with autism?

It’s no problem at all, I’m perfectly happy to talk about it. I was first diagnosed with autism when I was 2 years old, which is actually a pretty common age, but it might come as a bit of a surprise to those who aren’t as familiar with how the testing process works. It’s something that I’ve spoken about quite openly in the past in an article at university, as well as an interview that I did with Rob Yates for Warwickshire a couple of years ago, so, yeah, it’s all good.

Speaking of that interview with Rob, I know that you mentioned your routines and rituals that helped you with your batting during that particular feature. Have you still got any certain superstitions or psychological tactics which help you maintain your focus whilst you’re out there in the middle?

I’ve actually cut down on my routines since that interview in 2024 because, if anything, I found that they were detracting from my focus instead of helping me regain my concentration out there in the middle. I’ve still got a pre-match morning routine where I do things in a certain way - which I’ve been doing for years - but aside from that, the only ritual that I’ve got whilst I’m batting is tapping my bat a different number of times depending on whether the bowler’s a seamer or a spinner.

Sometimes when I’m in a more stressful situation though, I’ll walk towards square leg and start thinking of completely random things like films or even random non-cricket things that I can see at the ground to take my mind away from the pressure. Admittedly, it probably sounds a bit unorthodox when you say it out loud, but I’ve found it to be really helpful this season so, yeah, it’s been a good tactic so far.

And going back to our conversation about the Warwickshire Access Team, what would you say has been the highlight from your time with the side so far?

Well, the Access team won the Super 9’s title back in 2023, but I only played in a couple of games that season, so I look at that win as more of a highlight for the team, who had done all the hard work to reach the Final in the first place, as opposed to it being an individual highlight in a way. It’s definitely one of the proudest days that the Access team has had in recent years though, so I still wanted to give it a mention because everyone did such a great job throughout that tournament.

As for my own individual highlights however, I’d say I’ve got three which immediately stand out. The first one would be when I scored my first 50 in the D40, which came against Shropshire and I believe it was one of the first 50’s that had been scored by a Warwickshire player in the D40 for a long time, so that was a nice moment, even though we went on to lose that game unfortunately.

The second one, which is probably my favourite of the three, would be our first win as a squad in the D40. We were playing away at Shropshire and it was a really tough game that we won out of nowhere, so that was a really special moment as a team as well. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that Dean [Wattison] was the captain for that game too, and he made sure to remind us that he had a 100%-win record in the league whenever he got the chance to speak about it, so that was funny!

Then the third and final highlight – which is also the most recent one – would be my 55 against Yorkshire earlier this month. Sadly, we lost that game, but to score 268 runs as a batting unit when we’re known more for our bowling was something to be really proud of. I also look back to last season, and we had such a heavy reliance on our top order to score the majority of our runs, so to have those contributions throughout the line-up, even though Yorkshire ended up winning the game by 1 wicket, is also something that we can take confidence from heading into the rest of the tournament.

Well that leads us very nicely onto our final topic of conversation for today’s chat Haroon. What are you hoping to achieve with the Warwickshire Access team, as well as the 3rd XI at Walmley, for the remainder of the 2026 season and beyond?

It’s an ambitious goal, but I’d quite like to get to 1000 runs by the end of the season. I’ve been working a lot with SI Coaching to improve little bits of my technique, and I’ve been keeping my own run tally since pre-season, so I’d definitely like to achieve that by the end of the Summer.

With my club cricket at Walmley as well, my main goal and aspiration is to keep the 3rd XI in the division that we’re currently in. It’s going to be a pretty tough challenge because we could finish anywhere from high mid-table to bottom two at this stage, but it’d be amazing if we could win a few games and then not have to worry about being in a relegation scrap later on in the season.

Then for the Bears, it’s all about winning these next 3 games in the D40. None of them are going to be easy but if we can beat Shropshire and Yorkshire, we’ll have a chance of getting into the national semi-finals and reaching the Quest, which is the highest division you can reach in the tournament. That’d be massive for the team, as well as the Access programme as a whole, so we’ve definitely got that in our sights heading into the start of July and beyond.

And finally, on an even more personal level, I’d love to put myself in the mix for the Disability Premier League trials later this year. That’s been a huge aspiration of mine ever since joining the Access team at Edgbaston, so I’d absolutely love to experience that in the future if I get the chance. For the time being though, I’m just going to keep on enjoying my cricket as much as I can and if any extra opportunities come up, I’m going to take them as best as I can.