[Sohel]

Originally Posted by Puck
but you did say 'Top shelf, IMHO, the current genuine superstars, meaning the ones people the world over will pay to watch: Mohammad Ashraful and Mashrafe Bin Murtaza'.

these cricketers might well be superstars within bangladesh but i dare say total nonentities outside of the bangladeshi borders ...

My point exactly, as the thread title clearly suggests. For and of BD cricket within the Bangadeshi context. When it comes to Ashraful and Mashrafe, the phrase "paying to see them play" was repeatedly used by commentators during the world cup, most notably by Ian Chappell during the pre and post match shows, and Nasser Hussein during some of the ball-by-ball commentary. Ian Chappell went as far as consideing him as one of the most influential players of the near future alongside Kevin Pietersen. Mashrafe recieved similar praise from Ravi Shastri during and after the India tour. I tend to share Shastri's optimism more than Ian Chappell's at this particular point in time when it comes to the global context. When it comes to the BD context, "superstardom" should come to us as no surprise given the intense passion and emotionalism that often gets the better of our nascent cricket culture.

That said, this thread was about Junayed Siddique, not my choice of a particular word to be picked upon with questionable intent. I used the word "superstar" and not "the next big thing" repeatedly, so sue me.