masri's interview on prothom-alo

[shovon13]

a good read

interesting. this should answer a lot of our questions.



"We know how to play as well, it'll just take a little bit of time."

Only if Bangladesh had another bowler like Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, our tour in England could've been a little different. Only 4 wickets in the test series, one mere wicket out of five matches in the odi tournament - these show why we say statistics never tell the true story. He has frustrated a lot of English and Aussie batsmen, but only bad luck has stood between him and more wickets. He has had 3 operations on his knees already at this tender age. Despite of it, the way he has come back is near impossible. here's an interview with him -

Prothom-alo: England is the heaven of pace bowlers. what do you think after your first tour here?
Masri: even before coming here, people told me how the pitches here support the bowlers. but after playing the practice matches, i realized that i was in for some hard work. i thought all i have to is deliver the bowl, and the pitch will do the rest. the real story is different. in our country, bowling with the old ball is rather easy. if you hold the ball across the seam, then you get uneven bounce, which gives trouble to the batsmen. but here, its really tough to bowl with the old ball. on top of that, we faced the two top teams in the world. both of these teams are a lot more familiar with these kind of pitches.

prothom-alo: how has the series gone for you?
masri: the biggest thing of all is, i've been fit throughout the tour. i've bowled at around 82 mph on average, while my fastest was around 84. i haven't been able to do that before. i had fun bowling here too. although i didn't get more than 4 wickets in 2 innings, but sometimes lady luck wasn't smiling at me. at the end of the day, i'm happy that i was able to play for 2 straight months without injuries.

prothom-alo: can you still bowl the way you used to before those injuries?
masri: if i want to, i can bowl faster. but i dont, because line and lengh are more important to me than speed alone. before all i used to do was bowl fast, and i didn't know much back then. now i have a lot more control on my swing. i have a natural away swinger, and imran sir (sarwar imran) has taught me the inswinger. i got the wickets of sehwag, tendulkar, and dravid against india with my inswining delivery. dravid actually judged it as an away swinger, so he left it, and as a result got out. now i'm working on how to hit the seam. harmison has told me that i wasn't much of a bowler before. now that i've been hitting the seam more often, its bringing me more success. if the ball pitches on its seam, then it bounces more, and sometimes it skids.

prothom-alo: do you still regret the time u've lost due to injuries?
masri: i just think i would've gotten 100 scalps already only if i didn't get injured so many times. the two times i got injured, i was at the top of my game. against newzealand, i had 3 wickets to my name. in one spell against the likes of parore and cairns, i bowled 12 overs conceding only 5 or 6 runs. before i got injured again against england, i got 8 wickets in 3 innings. my only regret is that i could've used all that time i lost to learn a lot more.

prothom-alo: almost in every match, we see that you're bowling tight from one end. but the pressure is let off from the other. is it frustrating?
masri: i believe that i'm responsible for my own bowling. i'm playing for my country, so are tapash and nazmul. its not like they are less patriotic for their country. they are also good bowlers, unless they wouldn't be here. i haven't been able to break through the opposition innings early in many matches too. the one match where i did do it, we won against australia. tapash got a few wickets in that match as well.

prothom-alo: fast bowlers are known to hunt in pairs. who's your favorite?
masri: when i started my career, i bowled with manju bhai and sharif. but tapash has been my partner for the longest time. which is probably why i have the most understanding with him as well.

prothom-alo: u've been the main strike bowler for bangladesh since day one of your career. how are you handling this pressure?
masri: honestly, i never take it as pressure. its been a rare case in test matches when i failed to get a wicket early in the inning. got 3 wickets in an inning around 7/8 times, and got 4 scalps 3 times. i dont think i've done too bad. when i'll go through a bad patch, guess the pressure will come then.

prothom-alo: but u still dont have a 5-for in test matches!
masri: yeah thats a disappointment to me too. my trainer (karppinen) told me that my average in tests (30) is pretty good. but only if it was around 25, and i had a couple of 5-for, that would've been awesome. as of now, thats my target.

prothom-alo: an english newpaper said that karppinen is the second best bowler in the team after you!
masri: you know how they are, their job is to put down who are already down.

prothom-alo: seems the english media has been bugging you guys a lot.
masri: felt bad in the beginning. but after beating australia, we just dont care. many, even from our country, said a bunch of negative things about our wins against india and pakistan. but no one can say anything about this win. because everyone knows australia is the most ruthless team in the world. they'll fight till the last ball. this victory proves that we know how to play too. we just need a bit of time.

prothom-alo: at cardiff you bowled a spell of 6 overs, giving only 5 runs and picking up a wicket. is it your best odi spell ever?
masri: at darwin i bowled a similar spell against the same openers, giving away 11 from 6 overs. but yes, this was my best spell of my odi career.



Edited on, June 29, 2005, 1:41 AM GMT, by shovon13.

[al Furqaan]

please translate the gist of it.

just the important stuff, if not word for word.

[shovon13]

done with the translation. it was rushed, please bear with me.

[capslock]

Thanks so much for the translation, we appreciate it.

[Orpheus]

prothom-alo: an english newpaper said that karppinen is the second best bowler in the team after you!

LOL LOL LOL

Thanks for the translation. Job well done.

[al Furqaan]

great job shovon!!!

[RazabQ]

What strikes me is his intelligence. Very thoughtful answers. I echo al Furqaan's thoughts

[Rubayed]

My fav part of the interview is : prothom-alo: an english newpaper said that karppinen is the second best bowler in the team after you!
masri: you know how they are, their job is to put down who are already down.

[Fazal]

Thanks shovon13 for taking the time to translate the whole interview.

[arafath79]

Tapash is Mashrafee's beat partner !!!:P

[al Furqaan]

Originally posted by RazabQ
What strikes me is his intelligence. Very thoughtful answers. I echo al Furqaan's thoughts

masri's level of intelligence is astounding. he is our smartest sounding player in interviews. not that others are dumb.

[RazabQ]

Originally posted by shovon13
a good read

prothom-alo: can you still bowl the way you used to before those injuries?
masri: ... harmison has told me that i wasn't much of a bowler before ...

Actually that should read "Harmison told me I wasn't such [a good] bowler before". Essentially Harmison, who saw Masree during the tour of BD was pointing out his improvement. So it was an encouragatory statement

Thanks for the translation, I'm sure many of our foriegn born Bangladeshis will appreciate it.

[Mueid]

this guy surely is intelligent. what i just dont understand is that, there are millions of cricket fans and players in bangladesh and yet there is no second mashrafee? whats wrong with us bangalis man. i just dont understand this science of life. last week i met this pakistani uncle and his 4 year old kid. and my god!! it was a tendulkar in the making. his dad asked him to show us some stuff he knows and believe me it was unbeleiveable. his forward and backfoot defence and drives mago re. how come these pakis are born cricketers and we r not? i just dont understand, seriously!! eto bhat khai, mathay kisu dhuke na ken that we have to fall behind in everything?

Edited on, June 30, 2005, 12:11 AM GMT, by Mueid.

[shovon13]

no problem guys. and thanks razab bhai for fixing that part, yeah i was really rushing at the time, not the best translation job of all.

anyways, i do agree that masri is a lot more matured for his age. is there any chance for him to turn out to be the next captain of our team?

[Mueid]

next captain , i dont think so. he's just so glad and really surprised that he wasnt injured in this tour. such a unpredictable player cant be made captain i dont think so,

[mwrkhan]

Originally posted by Mueid
i just dont understand, seriously!! eto bhat khai, mathay kisu dhuke na ken that we have to fall behind in everything?

Bhat is pure carbohydrate ... only good for raising the blood's glycemic index and making one fat and lethargic. Instead we should be eating more maach which is as good a brain food there is. Alas! maach is expensive. As always the problem is money

[Alomelo]

Originally posted by shovon13
no problem guys. and thanks razab bhai for fixing that part, yeah i was really rushing at the time, not the best translation job of all.

anyways, i do agree that masri is a lot more matured for his age. is there any chance for him to turn out to be the next captain of our team?

dude.. how long it took you to translate all these? man.. you did a good job there...