Mushtaq Ahmed has turned appealing into an art form over the years.

The sight of the Pakistani leg spinner turning to the umpire, hands aloft, pleading for a response in the affirmative to his demands has become a familiar image in world cricket.

Sussex supporters familiarised themselves again with the appealing side of Mushy this summer when he acted as Saqlain Mushtaq's locum in the Surrey side.

He went wicketless in that game, although it wasn't for the want of trying and the feeling in both camps afterwards was that if he had taken one wicket, five or six more would quickly have followed.

So it was hard to believe that the excitable, occasionally irascible Mushy, who played at Hove in August, was the same person introduced as Sussex's second overseas signing yesterday.

Mushtaq, it seems, is a changed man. His love of the game is still strong, so too his desire to add a few more scalps to the 800-plus he has already claimed in a career which now stretches back 16 years.

But in other ways this is a different Mushy to the player who appeared to have bowed out of county cricket for good after leaving Somerset under a cloud in 1998.

In his last season at Taunton he played just six games and took 14 Championship wickets. Perhaps batsmen had got used to his supple wrist and tweaking fingers. But there were stories that he didn't get on with new coach Dermot Reeve and was seeking solace too often in the bars around Taunton where his exploits in previous seasons guaranteed there would always be an admirer happy to keep his glass topped up.

"During that last season with Somerset I wasn't enjoying my cricket for the first time in my career," he says quietly.

"I don't want to go into the reasons deeply. It was a little bit my fault, the coach changed and one or two other things happened but my religion has taught me the value of forgiveness."

Four years on Mushtaq has made peace with himself and the world. He has embraced the Muslim faith, prays five times a day and says he is a much calmer person.

Calmness is the last word you would use to describe Mushy when he thinks he's snared another victim and is seeking confirmation from the umpire. But he remains an incorrigible entertainer, a bowler who loves getting batsmen out and believes that every time he beats the bat is a legitimate excuse for a n excitable appeal.

"I love cricket," he declares. "Obviously being a professional I have to think about money but that has always come second for me to the game. If I start wondering about how much I'm going to earn from cricket I don't perform well.

"All I want to do is play, I hate rain or anything else which destroys my opportunity to play cricket. How can you say you are the best spinner in the world when you are sitting in the dressing room?"

It's not just English audiences who he is is keen to remind that his best days are ahead rather than behind him. A bowler with 183 Test wickets at 32.24 would be a shoe-in in most Test teams, but the Pakistani selectors have ignored him for 18 months ago and he still doesn't know why.

"I don't know what the situation is with Pakistan," he said. "I'm not the sort of person who goes after selectors or through the press, but I know they haven't got an answer to my question: Why don't you pick me?

"I've got 183 Test wickets, I was leading wicket-taker in Pakistan last season but still nothing. I must have broken the rules or something, but no one has told me that.

"But if I keep performing then I will get noticed in Pakistan. I still have ambitions to play international cricket and doing well for Sussex will help me because the reports will eventually get back."

When the county decided to recruit a second overseas player their priority was to bring in a high-quality spinner to compliment Mark Davis's off breaks and supplement a seam attack which, firing on all cylinders, remains one of the best in the country.

Skipper Chris Adams had heard the gossip which accompanied Mushtaq's departure from Somerset. But he saw enough at Hove in August to convince him that the 32-year-old still had a lot to offer.

"He's got an exceptional first class record and came across as someone who is very hungry to perform and prove a point, both here and to the selectors in Pakistan," said Adams.

"It is my intention to play two spinners next season. Balancing the side is important, but of paramount importance is that you put the best team out at all times.

"You can't say that every player will play every game, but if you have two quality spinners playing on good Hove pitches with three quality seamers, which we know we have, then that gives us a very balanced side. As long as we put runs on the board then we stand a great chance of doing very well next season."

Mushtaq is over to play some indoor exhibition games in Cardiff before returning to play for National Bank in Pakistan.

But he plans to be back three weeks before the start of the 2003 season to train with his new team-mates and sort out his role in the side.

Then he will be unleashed on a new generation of county cricketers who weren't around when Mushy was establishing his reputation back in the mid-nineties with his exotic variations of leg spin.

"The cricket is the same now as then, but perhaps English batsmen have a better idea of how to play spin now than when I first played county cricket and got 85 wickets in my first season," he said. But there is a lot of talent in this country. I have seen plenty of youngsters with natural talent at leg spin and if I get the opportunity I will work in the schools in Sussex and teach them, it should be great fun."

It's hard to believe Mushtaq could improve on his astonishing haul of 95 first-class wickets back in 1995, but he's determined to give it a try.

"When I played for Somerset I had a conversation with the coach Bob Cottam I said I would get 100 wickets," he said. "I got 95 in my third so perhaps this is Allah giving me my opportunity to fulfill my dream and get 100 with Sussex. That's my aim? Why not? I love cricket and I always try to think positively so anything is possible."