Watch out cricket wrold!

Today  Bangladesh cricket team & its captain Shakib Al Hasan were all over the newspapers. I didn’t find any newspaper without report on Bangladesh cricket team. Everyone is praising the team and captain Shakib. Why won’t they? For the first time Bangladesh won a series against a full strength test playing country. They just won the 5 ODI series against New Zealand.

From the last Series against New Zealand, I like to see them as the the opponent of Bangladesh team in cricket. So I was really looking forward for this series. Before the series stared I was sure that Bangladesh team will win at least one ODI. But I never thought they will win the series.  They really surpassed my expectation.

My Family knows I’m a great fan of Bangladesh cricket team. So every time  I say something about BD team, they try to make fun out of it and make me angry. After Bangladesh won the first ODI, I was too excited. I told my father about the win. My father said “Don’t get too excited. Your team is going to loose next match.” When the 2nd match got abandoned,  I was little bit upset. Again my father told me ” your team got lucky. if the match didn’t get abandoned, BD team would loose.” So I told him that Bangladesh will win in the next match even though I wasn’t sure about it. My father replied “BD team was just lucky in the first match. They won’t be lucky in next match.” So when Bangladesh won the 2nd match, I sent a text to my father saying “In your face dad. Bangladesh won the match by 7 wickets & 10 overs.” That night, my father told me “Ok, Bangladesh is playing well. but they will loose the next two matches. They can’t continue the performance.” I replied “They don’t have to win. They have already did it. Now they are not loosing the series. I don’t expect more.”

Even though I said “I don’t expect more”, During the 5th ODI, I was  sitting like statue in front of TV whole  time. I was terrified with the beginning of Bangladesh innings. But Sakib pulled out the team from danger. After the Bangladesh innings, I told my mom “Bangladesh have scored 241. I think they are going to win the match & the series.” I was surprised when mom replied “huh! New Zealand is a weak team. there is nothing to be excited about.” I asked her “how can you tell that NZ is a weak team?” Again she replied ” if NZ wasn’t a weak team, how come Bangladesh won last 2 matches. Bangladesh can’t win against strong teams.” Then I said ” may be it’s time to think that Bangladesh is becoming a strong team. They will win the match & the series”. Yes, they did.

Yes! I know Bangladesh cricket history is not that bright. But we are developing. I saw the change in the mentality of the players. They are now more dedicated and professional. They are giving their best efforts in every matches. Now our players are becoming world class players. Our players are getting international recognition.  At present Shakib is the No. 1 all-rounder in Cricket. Tamim Iqbal has been named as “Test Player of the Year” award by Wisden Cricketer Magazine. Last year, Shakib won this award.

If we want to keep this performance consistent, we have to nurture our players carefully. Or else their merit won’t be recognized anymore. It would be like what happened to Ashraful.  We had Ashraful was considered to be the next little master. But he wasn’t able to keep going.

If we can utilize our players merit, our country sure will become a cricket giant. One day will come when Bangladesh will rule the cricket world.  May be that day is not near, you can’t see it. But listen carefully, you will hear tiger’s roar. Watch out cricket world, Tigers are coming……

Related Articles

• Tamim named Wisden Cricketer Test Player of the Year (cricinfo.com)
• Blackcaps lose Bangladesh series (3news.co.nz)
• ‘Now 4-0 is very possible’ – Shakib Al Hasan (cricinfo.com)
• Bangladesh showed us how to play – Vettori (cricinfo.com)
• Bangladesh captain hails team after historic victory over New Zealand (guardian.co.uk)