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Moeen Ali lifts the lid on unruly school days

by Wisden Staff 2 minute read

Although Moeen Ali might now be the calmness personified on a cricket field, the off-spinner hasn’t always demonstrated a cool head in other walks of life.

Speaking on the ECB’s No Boundaries documentary series, Moeen revealed that he wasn’t a particularly well behaved pupil at the start of his secondary school career.

“In secondary school I became a bit more of a…not a rebel, rebel is a harsh word. I would say I was bit more…I had the guts to do a few more things,” said Moeen with a smile. “Things you look back at and think ‘Why? Why did I do that?’ but at the time you’re having a laugh with your friends and you’re probably going through that stage where you’re personality is changing.

“I got suspended three times in my first two years (at senior school) for a week. I was on report for a couple of years. One was for bad language, one was for…we took stopwatches and just threw them in the science lab, it was just messing round.

“I couldn’t afford detentions because I was training from 13 to 15 and my dad said to me every day, ‘Just give me two years of your life and you can do what you want after that.’ So for those two years I couldn’t afford detentions or get behind. I had to behave myself.”

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