Introduce Yourself

[Zephaniah]

I'm 28 now and counting (fast).

Where do I stand? Top 20 oldest people in this forum? I think so.

[Gilchrist]

I'm Ben from NT Australia, I love cricket I watch every game thats on tv, and My favourite player is Adam Gilchrist.

[tushar manob]

Hi all,

I am Tuhin from Minnesota. I had been a fan of cricket since 87 world cup. I have been visiting this discussion group for almost a year, finally became a member.

Gooooooooooo BANGLACRICKET.COM

[CTazim]

I think I am the oldest in this forum... but nevertheless young at heart . I live in Connectictut since 1997 and in the U.S. since '86; I am a Notre Dame alumni.- class of '85. I'm married to my high school sweetheart since 1994 and have two wonderful daughters 9 and 2. I've a bachelor in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and currently pursing my M.B.A from RPI Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

I am an IT professional working here in Connecticut for ESPN and passionate about Cricket. I.E. Bangladesh cricket. I have seen all Bangladesh ODI in the worldcup live and have followed ball-by-ball commentary live almost for all other BD tests and ODI.

When I was in Dhaka, I used to play cricket (ametuer and not nearly as good- and that too is an overstatement ) in Ispahani colony with Atahar bhai, Nazim bhai and Nazim bhai's brother Kazim bhai (who used to be the wicket keeper for Azad Boys back in the early to mid 80s). Last time the Bangladesh team was in Washington D.C. I went and saw the match against the U.S. team. The game ended in a draw (can you believe that!) and I had the opportunity to meet with Atahar bhai. Anyway, it was good to see Nazim Bhai still writes here.. I hope I can get to say hi to him. Although I don't know whether he will remember me or not as it has been almost 20 years since I last saw him.

The other day I was a bit vocal about my disgust of undermining BD's ability by Indian and Western Media. In my zeal I ended up generalizing and thus ended up sounded equally bigotted. Although, I can say with conviction that we ought to take all sort of criticism with a grain of salt and also be congnizant of the hidden sass in guise of "constructive criticism" which arise mainly from a perpetual believe of being superior to Bangladesh, we ought to be (I am speaking for myself mostly) a little careful how to let off the steam. It provides a totally wrong picture of your self to people who only know you from what you write in the forum. I know I am not a bigot- it comes from the frustration of Indians or the Brits making fun of Bangladesh - a country which may be poor, but whose people can show many thousand fold to the west what the word of "giving" means without owning a whole lot.

Finally, If I can be of any help to Banglacricket.com let me know. I would consider that a privilege!

[chinaman]

Originally posted by Zephaniah
I'm 28 now and counting (fast).

Where do I stand? Top 20 oldest people in this forum? I think so.

Nice try. Not even in top 50

I think one has to go very near to the sixties to be considered in the competition for the oldest member of banglacricket.

Anyway, banglacricket welcome all the new members.

[Imtiaz]

Originally posted by Tintin
>>If you want to know about the 1960-61 India v Pakistan series, talk to me.

Imtiaz bhai,

Out of interest. How did you follow cricket then ? BBC ? Radio Australia ? All India Radio ?

PS : There used to be a time when I was among the older people on this forum, when only rafiq was old enough to be addressed 'bhai'. Bad old days !

Actually, I am not too bothered either way with the "bhai" suffix. Certainly better than the "uncle" I keep on hearing from strangers in Dhaka !

Your question takes me back to very happy memories. My earliest memory of listening to a radio commentary would be the Bombay test of 1960-61 on our Murphy radio when Hanif scored a very slow [ as always ] 160. It was an awful series. Both side scared of losing. That was All India Radio / Radio Pakistan. Pakistan had a great commentator in Omar Qureishi.

After that, memories are clearer. I occasionally would listen to BBC World Service with my father - Ashes 1961 comes into mind , very vaguely though. A great piece, I heard fortuitously, was when Griffiths broke Cowdrey's hand in 1963. Believe me, it was audible, or , so we felt. I don't think there were stump microphones then.

From 1966 onwards, I followed ball-by-ball commentary like a religious duty. If it was an Australian test , then waking up at 6:00 am and listening to the dulcet tones of Alan McGilvray and Lindsay Hassett comes to mind. Upsetting my grandparents as I would not move away from the radio and not have my breakfast. BBC ball-by-ball was, of course, John Arlott and Brian Johnston. They were great commentators, each completely different from the other. However, the person who "taught" me cricket was Trevor Bailey. I also credit BBC ball-by-ball commentary for teaching me English !

In 1971/72, the South African tour to Australia was cancelled due to apartheid and a Rest of the World tour was organised. Overnight , I think, Gavaskar and Engineer were batting. I woke up late and it was just before lunch. Gavaskar and Engineer were still batting ! No shakes. McGilvray, however, reminded us , that this was the secong innings !! Lillie had blown away the first innings with 8 wickets.

In those days, summer evenings passed by listening to cricket and, even, Wimbledon.

Even, after I moved to England in 1975, I used to watch the BBC Test match special [ long before Sky ] but with the sound off. The radio was always on. I used to find Jim Laker very boring.

Amongst the recent crop, I find Agnew quite acceptable. Though no-one to replace Bailey from an educationn point of view.

But no mention of listening to short wave radio can be complete without mentioning the "fading away" of the brodcasts. We had to move the aerial and what not. When the transistor radio arrived, turning it to face different directions, going up to the roof to get a better signal was all part and parcel of the listening ! I don't think many people would now-a-days even know what a 25 meter band is ? or, how many khz ? For some reason BBC was best in 25 and 31 mb. Radio Australia was always 13 and 16 mb.

Sorry ! A long reply.

[ManInBlack]

Its a great site!!!!!

I'm 26..living in sydney. I first came to about this site on BBC web site. I'm finding it to be a cool web site for a BD Cricket fanatic like me.

Two thumbs up to all the adminitrators moderators and members of this site. Keep it up!!!

Looking forward to talk to you all in recent future.

[Tintin]

Beautiful post, Imtiaz bhai.

My commentary days lasted only from 1986 to around 1994, when cable channels began to show the matches live. But I fondly remember my days with BBC and Radio Australia.

[Jottoshob]

This is Hasib from Kansas City.

Married.
Age : 32 (Bura)
SSC : Udayan Bidyalaya
HSC : Notredame College
BS : North South University
MS : Central Missouri State University

Working for Sprint as a software Engineer.

Love cricket. Wicket Keeper/Batsman of our Kansas City Based Bangladeshi team BDTigers. We play tape tennis cricket.

Hope few of you know me.

[chinaman]

Originally posted by CTazim
Finally, If I can be of any help to Banglacricket.com let me know. I would consider that a privilege!

Dhorata khailen Bhai Aapnake kee ar chari?

Bangladeshi fan, association with a sports channel, IT professional ... umm... does it ring a bell to anyone? Please raise your hands.

[rafiq]

Hadn't checked this thread in ages - hey what is this obsession with being old, people? We seem to be trying to outdo each other to establish who is older? Is that to get more respect or apoligize to the ladies for not being a young thing anymore or what?

Anyway, Tintin I was NEVER the oldest on this board and am NOWHERE near such elite status. Chinaman is the oldest, he just won't admit to it!

There's no real need to call each other Bhai on the forum either. If someone is offended about not being addressed as Bhai or Apa then that's their issue. When you are writing on a forum I don;t think you have time to stop and think who is older or younger than you.

Imtiaz, thanks for bringing back the memories of short wave radio!

Hey Azim, I am sure Nazim will get back to you if he sees this post but just send him a U2U or contact him via tpsultan on this board. I don't know if we met back in the day but I was good friends with Kazim and we all went to Greenherald together.

Do you remember any of the GH boyz - on the cricket field or off - Subho & his brother Sagor (Sabbir/Iftekhar, responsible for most of the concert fights in those days), Brian Liu, lombu Lewis who played 1st or 2nd div cricket can't remember which, Peal/Pickloo, Parvez Mallam from Alliance Francaise, etc? Did you play any cricket with Kazim circa 81-82? At Notre Dame, you may remember some Josephites from that time and my good friend Tahmid Mizan who was probably a year ahead of you.

anyway, nice to meet some of the "younger" board members.

[Tehsin]

Wow, I am feeling soooooooooooo young Thanks to all the golden oldies. It was fascinating to hear your stories and would love to hear more - please keep them coming. We can renew one of our older threads or creat a new one where you can discuss this. 'A trip down memory lane' - sound good to you ?

I am wondering why we are not getting more folks from DC.

[jeesh]

Jeeshan Mirza,

[sham1980]

My name is Sham's I am from London. I am 24 yrs old I am keen Bangladesh Cricket Fan.

[CTazim]

P.S. I am from Udayan too

[Rumee]

I am an 'alter kockers (Yiddishism for 'old farts'); old enough for playing cricket in the Mymensingh League in 1970. Played for BUET. Also, played mostly in 2nd division with occassional years in the First division league. Out of touch with cricket for 20 years (left Bangladesh in 1983). Discovered cricket two world cups ago. Became cricket fanatic again and renewed my ties with cricket in St. Lucia last year. Was a software developer. Now an idiot (Karmakarta) trying to get my organization from BEA Tuxedo world to J2EE environment. Live in Delaware, USA. PS: Went to play club cricket and broke my wrist last yaer. Still recovering.

[Maruf]

I welcome all the new members here. It's a great cricket forum and a fun place. People are also very friendly. Have a pleasant stay!

[tiger_man]

hi, i am living in sydney aged 20

i love being part of this forum as i get updated much quickly in a tight bangladesh match....(zimb vs tigers) and (tigers vs india)

furthermore i like it here because the forum is clean, well maintained with no swearing or offensive contents, unlike most websites.....

keep up the good work.....

[Tehsin]

There is a cricket league in Delware too ? Wow.
Welcome to the board Rumee 'uncle' and the other newer members. How far is Hockessin rom wilmington?

[Zunaid]

Originally posted by rafiq
Do you remember any of the GH boyz - on the cricket field or off - Subho & his brother Sagor (Sabbir/Iftekhar, responsible for most of the concert fights in those days), Brian Liu, lombu Lewis who played 1st or 2nd div cricket can't remember which, Peal/Pickloo, Parvez Mallam from Alliance Francaise, etc? Did you play any cricket with Kazim circa 81-82? At Notre Dame, you may remember some Josephites from that time and my good friend Tahmid Mizan who was probably a year ahead of you.

Aaah. That's why I seemed to recall the name CTAzim. Rafique, how could you forget to add me to your cavalcade of names from GH/NdC. Tsk Tsk.

[Imtiaz]

Originally posted by Tintin
Beautiful post, Imtiaz bhai.

My commentary days lasted only from 1986 to around 1994, when cable channels began to show the matches live. But I fondly remember my days with BBC and Radio Australia.

Thanks. Glad to know of your experiences ! Presumably, this was after Arlott. Brian Johnston, Blofeld etc. must have been the commentators then. Who did it from Australia ? You also must have missed the frustration of a short wave listener !

In fact, this is the period, I know very little about. Before the advent of satellite television, England, believe it or not, was a very Cricket un-friendly country - unless England themselves were involved, of course - because of the time zones. For example, my knowledge of the growth of Sri Lankan players is not very good or even Indians and Pakistanis of that era.

I had a rather snobbish attitude towards satellite dishes considering it too "gawdy". I remember settling into my sofa late in the evening to watch the 1992 World Cup highlights when I had nasty wake-up call. There would be no World Cup on terrestial TV. The bastard Murdoch had bought the rights ! My principles went down the drain and the horrible dish went up. Happily, renewing my acquaintance with cricket, albeit, mostly the heretical one day format of the game. Even now, I am not a great fan of one day cricket. It allows mediocre players to survive, in my opinion. I accept, of course, this is how first class cricket survives.

[rafiq]

Originally posted by Zunaid

Aaah. That's why I seemed to recall the name CTAzim. Rafique, how could you forget to add me to your cavalcade of names from GH/NdC. Tsk Tsk.

Kazi bhai, maaf kore diyen - I did not dare not take your name!

I remember Kazim would show up with a cadre of ringers from Ispahani Colony whenever we had pick up matches out at the BUET field (no way do I remember who the heck we were playing) - CTAzim may have been one of them!

[CTazim]

Hey Rafiq bhai: Were you in Virgina before moving to Chicago, Are you married to Naila Apa?

Anyway I know Peal, Walker, Rashad, Zahid although my senior. Georgy and Baby (Movie Star Olivia's brothers and soccred players), Shibli bhai, Shaon and etc. Zunaid Bhai and Fuzail Bhai also. Ejaj Bhai, Reaz bhai (works in the U.S. embassy in Dhaka), Munnaji Bhai, Shaheen bhai etc. Last time I was in Dhaka I met them on Eid.





Azim

[Firebolt]

Hi everyone...I hope i'm doing this right, as i'm a new member of banglacricket and have no idea how it works--yet.

anyways, i'm from skokie, IL (near chicago)...immigrated from bangladesh a few years back. i miss cricket possibly more than anything else (missing the 2003 world cup was the ultimate downer). however, thanks to banglacricket and sgstream.com, i was able to watch the victorious one day against india and clips of THE test against zimbabwe. so thanks for that.

o, i'm 17 years old, and i'm currently a junior/11th grader in high school.

err, ok so does this qualify as a proper intro? i hope!

[Zunaid]

Originally posted by CTazim
Hey Rafiq bhai: Were you in Virgina before moving to Chicago, Are you married to Naila Apa?

Anyway I know Peal, Walker, Rashad, Zahid although my senior. Georgy and Baby (Movie Star Olivia's brothers and soccred players), Shibli bhai, Shaon and etc. Zunaid Bhai and Fuzail Bhai also. Ejaj Bhai, Reaz bhai (works in the U.S. embassy in Dhaka), Munnaji Bhai, Shaheen bhai etc. Last time I was in Dhaka I met them on Eid.
Azim

Speaking of Reaz = are we talking about Kana reaz or Mota Reaz? (Others - don't worry - these friends are ok with the appellations)