The Three Legends

[shaoun]

Bangladesh Cricket is imaginable without these three names, Habibur Bashar, Khaled Mashud and Mohammed Rafique. There the oldies in the team full of teenagers.
Since receiving the test status, the selecters were keen to get rid of the oldies and bring in youngster. Because of this reason greats like Aminul Islam and Akram Khan were forced to retire pre-maturely. 99 World Cup hero Minhajul Abedin did not even get a chance to play test cricket. Selecters were focused on building a team for the future and therefore they were eager to get rid of the players from pre test era. In with the new and out with the old was their motto. Because of this alot of players were getting into the national team quite pre-maturely. But young players needs proper guidence, which was lacking in Bangladesh cricket team. For example when Sachine Tandukar got into the Indian Squad he had seniors like Krisnomachari Srikanth, Kapil Dev, Mohammed Azhar Uddin to guide him. Eventhough Tandukar had enormous talent the guidence from his seniors is what made his spot in the national team solid. Talents needs guidence, for awhile Bangladesh national team did not have that. Which is why we saw young players coming and leaving. Eventhough selectors were keen on getting rid of the oldies they could not get rid of Bashar, Pilot and Rafique. With performance these three kept their spot and with time they made their spot on the team rock solid. Which is why Bangladesh team is imaginable without these three guys in both ODI and test version.

Habibur Bashar- Lets start with our captain. He started his career at 95 Asia Cup, when the batting lineup had stars like Atahar Ali, Minhajul Abedin, Akram and Aminul Islam. These stars out shined the young Habibur and he was dropped from the team. Since then he was in and out of the team. Habibur Bashar could not match up with Akram or Bulbul. Selectors did not see much in him which is why he was almost dropped from our first test match against India. But he answered with 71 runs in the first innins and 30 in the next. From then Habibur did not have to look back. He became the most consistant player in our team. In a team where top order batsman struggled to get to double digits Habibur Bashar consistantly got runs. He became the first man to achieve 1000 runs milestone for our country. and he is the only batsman to scored 2000 test runs. when he scored his 2000 runs no other batsman even reaced the 1000 run milestone. Critisized for being too soft Habibur Bashar was awarded the captaincy at 2004 and answer with our first ODI win in 5 years. Under him we won our first test match and test series and we also won our first ODI series under his captaincy. In a team which is fulled with young talents Habibur is still the best batsman in our team. Our batting lineup depends alot on him just like it used to depend on Akram and Aminul. And Habibur Bashar is going the job that Akram and Aminul used to do and he is doing it against much stronger opponents in the highest form of the game.

Khaled Mashud- "friend in need is the friend indeed". If it is true then Khaled Mashud is the best friend of Bangladesh cricket. No one has save our team more often from embarrasment then Khaled Mashud. In the team as a wicket keeper but he has proven time after time that he can be very handy with the bat aswell. Many calls him the best wicket keeper in asia. For over a decade Mashud was the face behind the stamp for our country. For past decadehe was irreplaceable and he still is. Mashud is only 28 years old so I believe his place in the team will not be touched for a very long time.

Mohammed Rafique- "Rafique, Rafique" I am sure we heard that during the match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Undoubtbly the most popular player in our country. Only Bangldeshi player to take 100+ wickets in internatioal cricket. Rafique is not only a great spinner but he is also great with the bat. Bad luck kept him out of the national side for some time but once he got his chance he shined brighter then anyone else. Some calls him the best left arm spinner in the world. At age 34, Rafique is the oldest member of the team but I believe that his career is far from over.

These three guys are big part of the team. For us to be a competitive team in the future, these guys needs to nurture the young guys. They got to take the young players under their wings and make them better. They need to mature the younger members of our side in both in and out of the field. Ashraful, Nafees, Aftab these guys can learn alot from Bashar. Bashar has alot to teach these guys. For Mushfikur Rahim to be the wicket weeker in the future Khaled Mashud needs to take him under his wings. And Mohammed Rafique needs to take Monjurul Islam, Raj and our new superstar Enamul Haque Jr under his wings. Because the torche will be pass down to these guys and they need to be prepared to fill the shoes.
For a better tommrow we need to prepare the young players today. Bashar, Pilot and Rafique needs to prepare their sucessors before they pass the torch, so when they do get the torch they can light it up and take our country to the next level.

Edited on, May 23, 2005, 11:03 AM GMT, by radicalsami.
Reason: title de-capsed

[shaoun]

i am hoping this writing of mine will be posted to the main page. readed if you guys think its good enough post it to the main page if it is not then leave it here.

[Mahir]

certainly needs some editing...

[chinaman]

Dear shaoun, please check u2u. Thanks.

[oracle]

Shaoun, on the whole it is a good stab. But here are a few thoughts that could be expanded and developed into a very interesting piece of individual work of a higher order. Also to make it more "positive" .

-Cute title. Expand on it and think creatively. For example, you could go on and describe their involvements as a "group"- the 3 musketeers analogy. , i.e chemistry between these 3 players or the lack of it? How far back they have played with each other ( for example Rafique and Pilot's contribution in Kuala Lumpur) and the development of their skills along the years. Think about how Rafique had to modify his spin action( i.e the ICC report on his action).

-Then we have Pilot and his struggles.

-Bashar also was'nt selected on numerous occasions.

You may want to ask questions and offer answers backed up by numbers or match examples to back up an idea you have. Alternatively, you may want to ask: How would Bangladesh fare without them and show possible scenarios without them. How would BD look with more juniors in the team?

Edited on, May 23, 2005, 1:38 PM GMT, by oracle.