[MohammedShamim]

I can’t recall what time it was, but I remember the face, Sir Mohammad Ashraful. It was tensed, I never knew cricket would be emotional, it was my first, watching Bangladesh on TV. You see, I turned the TV on at a crucial moment, the commentators were praising Ashraful and how Bangladesh can create a historic moment, it got me interested. I was fortunate that Bangladesh was playing a worthy game, that kept me interested, otherwise my affection for Bangladesh Cricket would have probably not taken off. Prior to this, I didn’t know any cricketers from Bangladesh, but from that game, I learnt about the captain (Bashar) and Aftab ahmed, he came in at a crucial moment, the moment that stuck to my memory even today.

What cricket match I am talking about? Of course its Bangladesh vs Australia in Cardiff, Saturday, June 18, 2005. I turned the TV on when Bangladesh was on 106/3 (RR 7.5+), not that I knew what it meant that time, I just watched, kept on saying, keep hitting… and I remember fondly listening to the commentators, it wasn’t an appreciation that Bangladesh can do it, it was more about Ashraful, and how the approach should be. But the tone started to change in 10 overs time, when BD was roaring near the target. I still remember that wonderful 100 by Mohammed Ashraful. My due respect goes to Ashraful, for such a great moment of creating history, for him, I have become a Bangladesh Fan, not only me, I am sure many started to follow Cricket for the legend of BD, I call Sir Mohammed Ashraful, my hero.

Now, that I got into Bangladesh cricket, I needed to find out more, started to search on google and came across Bangla Cricket. I was really young and kind of immature about cricket. You see, the victory gave me wonderful thoughts, excellent thrills, and now I started to believe, hey Bangladesh is good. Then came the reality. When I found out, we were not that great, I started posting aggressively, sometimes swearing players, asking to kick them out of the team, blaming performance on corruption, board, family lineage etc. this was all out of frustration, what I thought, was different to what the reality was. So, for the next 10 or so years, I kept on doing that, but never gave up! I did it out of love, knowing one day, maybe, just maybe things will work out. But to be honest, never knew it would be that good. The occasional victory back then felt like winning the world cup! It meant so much to me, I am sure many of us here felt the same. Now we are in 2016, and how things have changed? Please share your story! That one moment which made you follow Bangladesh?