Shayan Khan and Nizam Uddin's reunion at Lavington this summer is therefore fairly unique and the strength of their connection goes some way to explaining their fantastic figures in CAW Provincial.

The Pakistani pair are dominating the bowling charts, having already picked up 23 wickets between them in just four rounds.

New recruit Uddin has taken 11 at an average of 9.0 while Khan, who was part of the Panthers' premiership-winning side of 2022/23, heads the competition with 12 at just 5.42.

"I know Nizam from my uni," Khan revealed.

"He was my junior and we used to play in the same team.

"He lived 30-45 minutes away from my place so he came to see me back home and said he'd applied for that same visa which I came on first.

"He said 'I'm coming' so I asked him 'where are you going to live?' and he said 'I don't know' so I said 'I'm living in Albury if you want to come to my place' and that's what happened."

Uddin wanted to play cricket so Khan had a word with Lavington captain Dave Tassell.

"Last year, we had that left-arm spinner, Nick Roebuck, but Dave told me he wasn't playing," Khan said.

"I told him I had a mate coming who's a very good left-arm spinner.

"When we used to play in uni, he was a medium-fast bowler, not a spinner so I wasn't sure how he was going to go but when he came here and I faced him in the nets, he was very different.

"I knew he was going to be very difficult to face this season because most of the pitches here are slow, turning wickets."

Khan, who was suffering with a groin injury towards the end of last season, returned to Pakistan to celebrate Ramadan and missed the grand final win over St Patrick's.

But he loved his first taste of CAW with the Panthers and Uddin's arrival has taken things to another level.

"I just go and play my natural game but Nizam has spent some time back home with some professional cricketers - he even got opportunities to play high-level cricket - and he tried to learn things," Khan said.

"He's more interested in cricket, to put it simply.

"In terms of fitness, he knows a lot of things and when we started our pre-season, he knew how to improve our batting and bowling.

"That really helped me and I was very excited.

"I used to be just by myself but it's very hard to go to the ground, one person, you need someone to help motivate you.

"That's what Nizam did.

"He tried to motivate me and now we go to the ground together.

"English is my third language so I can't speak in English every time.

"We share the same first language, Pashto, which is the national language of Afghanistan, and our second language is Urdu, the national language of Pakistan."

That feeling of taking wickets is just as good wherever you are in the world though.

"The start is very good," Khan said.

"I wasn't expecting such a good start because of that groin injury from last year but now everything looks fine.

"Most of the time, I'm very straight, wicket to wicket, and I think that's the key."

Khan learned his trade bowling in the streets with a tennis ball covered in electrical tape before graduating to a leather cricket ball at university.

After spells in Sydney and Griffith, Lavington is his third stop on Australian soil.

"Cricket is something which connects people together," he said.

"My goal is to connect with the community and make some new friends and cricket is helping me a lot.

"To be honest, I didn't have any plans to go overseas but there was an opportunity for engineers to come here so I applied for that visa.

"The living standard here is very different to Pakistan.

"Where I used to live is a very backward area, there's not many facilities and we have to travel for education.

"But here, every facility is on your doorstep so life here is easier than what we used to have.

"Australia is definitely a place of opportunities."

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