Imagine how Cricket has brightened Bangladesh over the last 8-10 months. Entire sporting world has stood up and applauded the brilliant emerging tigers for marvelous achievements against almost all the teams of the world. At home peerless Mashrafe-led Tiger Squad is  almost invincible  in the ODI format on abroad they also proved as a fierce competitor qualifying for the first time as quarter finalist of ICC world cup. Given their subsequent dominating performances against Pakistan, India and South Africa now cricket analysts have to believe if some backdoor parleys were not made Bangladesh could have gone deeper in the last World Cup.

Can one imagine? Just one year from now all kinds of wrong things almost stagnated progress of Bangladesh. The team was going through a losing cycle. ICC top all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was given very harsh treatment for some manageable offence. Mushfiqur was leading a disheartened, demoralized team looking down the barrel.

Cricket admirers strongly rallied against BCB unilateral actions against Shakib. Even little Maheer Sarwar Megh (only surviving son of murdered journalist couple Sagar-Runi) strongly pleaded for Shakib. The decision was reversed.

BCB made some fundamental changes. Mashrafee fit again for representing Bangladesh was made the captain in shorter formats of the game relieving gentleman cricketer Mushfiqur Rahim of huge additional burdens of leading team in all formats. He retained his test captaincy. Shakib was made deputy to Mashrafe and Tamim was made deputy to Mushfique.

Bangladesh introduced a new coaching team bringing in Sri Lankan ex test batsman turned coach Chandika Hathurusingha as head coach. The Zimbabwean pace legend Heath Streak was made bowling coach.

Few new players emerged. Inclusion of Soumya Sarkar in the world cup squad ahead of few established batsmen, a virtually unknown quality was hotly debated. Even some questioned inclusion of Shabbir. Bangladesh lost all four matches leading to the world cup in Australia. But these made the strong willed Mashrafe determined and hungry for success. Few weeks of stay in Australia changed the attitude of the entire unit.

First and the very important match of world cup was against Afghanistan in Australian capital Canberra. Bangladesh lost to Afghanistan in Asian Cricket Championship. Tiger captain Mashrafe-led from the front with brilliant exhibition of pace and swing bowling. A new star in Soumya Sarkar was born. In his brief innings, he struck a gorgeous over boundary off Afghan speedster Hamid Hasan announcing the arrival of master blaster of the future. Bangladesh won and won easily. Success started breeding.

Non Resident Bangladeshis living in Australia started rallying solidly red and bottle green. The next match against strong Australia and ultimate champions Australia at Brisbane was rained out. Bangladesh shared points.

Tigers appeared for the first time against Sri Lanka at cricket coliseum Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Melbourne possibly has the second largest population of Sri Lankans other than Colombo. In the huge terrace of MCG Lankans outnumbered Bangladeshis. But in enthusiasm and supports tiger fans were not match lagging behind. In the battle of nerves for the first appearance on the dream ground of the most Bangladeshi cricketers, some crucial mistakes in the field cost Bangladesh the match. But Mashrafe squad learned a lot from the match. The way the wounded tigers bounced back in the next two matches against Scotland and England were like fairy tales or stories from Arabian nights.

Bangladesh chased over three hundred against Scotland and Bengal tigers kicked out English Lions from the world cup at Adelaide Oval. Consistent Mahmudullah scored back-to-back World Cup Centuries. Rubel bowling fast with venom accounted for England’s demise. England was one of the favorite in the world cup and had extensive preparation for it. Bangladesh virtually reserved its berth for a quarterfinal date with India at MCG. They also played exceedingly well against co-host New Zealand at Hamilton. Kiwis were stretched to its limit for the first time in the tournament. Success started breeding.

The quarterfinal at MCG created huge enthusiasm among Bangladeshi community in Australia New Zealand and many other countries of the world. Visitors came from USA, Canada, UK and Bangladesh. Melbourne became a city of Joy. We occupied Federation Square with our strong presence the afternoon and the evening leading to the match.

Much has been said and written about infamous controversies that muddled the quarterfinal in front of near capacity MCG crowd. Some major umpiring mistakes (all going in favor of India) deprived the otherwise very competitive match. The facilities for technology use were not applied for 50-50 decisions.

The resultant controversies led to heated debate between ICC President AHM Kamal (Bangladesh) and ICC Chairperson. AHM Kamal bitterly criticized ICC no actions sensing rat. Srinibhasan action of not allowing ICC President handing over the champions’ trophy after the final was considered illegitimate. Kamal resigned.  Many persons including Bangladeshi Prime Minister thought that Bangladesh was deprived of a fair competition. Bangladesh lost the match but won the heart of cricket admirers all over the world.
 
What happened since that very strong Bangladesh performance in the World Cup in March –April till July 15 th are now fairy tales. Bengal tigers comprehensively white washed strong Pakistan, won the ODI series embarrassing strong India (many rightly termed as sweet revenge) and finally won the ODI series against strong South Africa.

A new generation of very high quality young cricketers, the likes of Mustafiz and Soumya Sarkar came from almost nowhere. Mustafiz completely bamboozled leading batsmen like Virat Kohli, Ajinka Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Hashim Amla, du Plessis, David Miller and Duminy. Soumya Sarkar played fearless blistering innings against top bowlers like Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, K Abbott, Morne Morkel; Established stars Tamim, Shakib, Mushfique, Mashrafe also performed. Nasir and Shabbir also made contributions whenever required.

Mashrafe led tiger squad emerged as invincible unit in ODI proving that Bangladesh never lacked cricket talents .It only required fine tuning , better nursing and good care which the coaching staff must be giving. The man who deserves unqualified appreciation is Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. Many cricketers like Shane Bond, Ryan Harris left cricket after one or two rounds of knee injury. This Bangladesh hero who loved to be called “Kaushik “had as many as half a dozen major knee surgeries in Australia . Still he is leading the team from the front. He inspires every single player, urges them into full commitment, and squeezes out the best of everyone.

Bangladesh is no longer known as a team of brittle batting. It has world class quality batsmen till number eight. If one or two fails others take over. The last two convincing wins against formidable South Africa required only two or three batsmen to overhaul the South African scores. Soumya alone dominated spanking protean bowling brutally. Mahmudullah in second ODI and Tamim in the third were his allay in the cruise. The entire team bowled superbly. Bangladesh is no longer a spin dominated attack. It now possesses a galaxy of talented pace bowlers. Mustafiz, Rubel, Taskin, Mashrafee can take stern test of any batting side anywhere. Fews like Al Amin, Shahid, Rabiul, and Shafiul are waiting in the pipeline. There are plenty of spin bowling options to supplement Shakib. Arafat Sunny, Jubair and Taijul are leading the pack. Nasir is emerging as wicket taking option. Mahmudullah is also there. Experienced Abdur Razzak is still going strong in domestic cricket.

Fielding has become sharp and agile. Nasir and Shabbir can be included among the top fielders of the world now. Soumya, Liton are also very good. Several young batsmen like Anamul Huq Bijoy, Rony Talukdar, and Mehedi Hasan Meraj are also emerging.  The under 19 team has several quality performers.

Bangladesh must not hesitate now in preparing sporting wicket against any opposition even in tests as that is the only area where the team has to make lot of improvement. Test cricket is the ultimate frontier .There also Bangladesh has some high quality talents like Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Jubair, Taijul and Shahid.

Need Professionalism At All Stages:
Bangladesh cricket has reached such a stage now that true professionalism has now become essential at all stages right from the top. BCB must be a truly professional cricket organization with transparency and accountabilities established at all level. Board President and board executives must be elected in a fair and transparent manner. Every person must have terms of reference and specific responsibilities to perform. Nothing should continue as ad hoc interim manner. Remember all the present achievement may soon blow with the wind if the pressure irregularities in some grey areas of BCB operations are not immediately addressed. Despite of recent successes BCB still lacks way behind Cricket Australia, English Cricket Board or South African Cricket Board. Still one or two persons dominate all decision making processes. There is hardly any transparency in financial dealings. Every expenditure must be audited by independent auditors. Players can be chopped and changed off and on for non-performances. Why then offending BCB officials taken to task for alleged misbehaviors and wrong doing?

What actually happened with Young Al Amin in Australia? Why actions were not taken against offending officials for Crown Casino incident? There are allegations that a business house is behind some irregularities of BCB. The committed and dedicated cricket organizers who are even sympathizers of the ruling government are deliberately kept at bay to protect the interest of fortunate few. All these cats are now hiding under the successes of Mashrafe squad. It will be better to amend these before rainy days.
The domestic cricket must be remodeled at all level. 160 million people are now deeply involved in cricket. Quality talents like Mustafiz and Soumya can be hunted from remote areas if only a solid program is launched nationwide. We need better-organized school cricket, age group cricket played on true surfaces under neutral supervision.

Responsible Media and Educated Cricket Community:
Very often we come across gossips in print and social media about cricket and cricketers which often hurts cricket. I have to quote a particular leading daily in its special issue carried a highly irresponsible cartoon story involving teenage prodigy Mustafiz and leading Indian batsmen. We understand Indian media often acts irresponsibly. Why we cannot be better if others are bad. In the past media harmed many of our leading ex cricketers Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan. Even now a section of the media (social media mostly) is vexing star opener Tamim and sometimes Mushfiqur Rahman. From 1960s Bangladesh especially Dhaka had a great reputation of being a very knowledgeable cricket fans. They used to admire every single piece of good cricket. It’s true with the passage of time many followers of other games have joined cricket fans. 99% of Bangladesh cricket fans are definitely excellent but for 1% our cricketers are often hurt, our image as cricket loving nation is questioned. With the graduation of Bangladesh cricket to a changing paradigm cricket community also must grow more responsible.

Potentials:
If Bangladesh can make a workable perspective short, mid and long term plan with auditable monitoring and evaluation Bangladesh can be a fierce competitor in the next ICC World cup 2019. By 2021, Bangladesh can be among the top four teams of the world. But we need to play more and more international matches, need to overhaul domestic cricket, change the ultra-defensive attitude in all formats of cricket. Finally, we must free cricket administration from the exclusive control of fortunate few. We have to have a talent hunting professional group comprising of ex quality cricketers. We need a very well organized cricket academy , we need some good cricket stadium with all facilities, true sporting playing surfaces , we need representative first class domestic cricket of long duration ( 4 day matches ).

We know success breeds success. It is very difficult to achieve consistencies. There will be high tide and low tides along the thorny path of success. But smart persons assess achievements in their truest perspectives and prepare for rainy days. It is all sunny now in Bangladesh cricket. Let us make plans taking all stakeholders together onboard.

Tigers have brought the entire nation to a united platform. Let the success of Mashrafe squad transcend at every sphere of national life.

Bangladesh is very lucky that it has a visionary head of Government who also loves sports and especially cricket. She is rightly optimistic that Bangladesh may win World Cup in not too distant future.  However, for her vision to be achieved Bangladesh needs a well-crafted mission.

BDST: 0856 HRS, JULY 17, 2015
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