Ashfaq-Ul-Alam

A total of 1574 players had registered for the players auction of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL). From there, 574 got shortlisted by the 10 teams to go under the hammer, of which 208 were from overseas, 12 of which were uncapped cricketers and only one of them was from New Zealand, a 22-year-old middle-order batter named Bevon Jacobs.

When stand-in skipper Mehedi Hasan Miraz made the shocking call of announcing an overnight declaration in the first innings in the Antigua Test even though the Tigers were still trailing by 181 runs, it didn’t make as much of a splash as it perhaps should have.

Not often can a cricketer boast reaching a milestone just by stepping onto the field. But on Friday, all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz reached not one but two significant career milestones when he went out for the toss ahead of the first of the two Tests against West Indies in Antigua.

Yesterday, the most important figure in the country’s sports administration at the moment, youth and sports Adviser Asif Mahmud, openly spoke about the ‘haphazard’ manner in which the top brass of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), headed by president Faruque Ahmed, is running its operation -- a scenario that was technically impossible even a few months back.

The ongoing three-match series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan has so far felt like looking inside a time capsule and finding a 50-over series at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium from the 90s in all its glory.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," a quote from French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr from the mid-1800s, comes to mind hearing the pre-tournament talks ahead of the 11th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), set to begin on December 30.

As they say, it’s better to try and fail than to never try at all. This is the time for Bangladesh to try and climb up the ladder in women’s football globally.

In Test cricket, Bangladesh have always blazed their own trail, usually down the wrong path, and followed processes that would beget blank stares and stunned looks in most other teams.

The masses had turned these five cricketers into icons, placed them above every other Bangladesh cricketer and showered them with all the love they could muster. But why?

When it comes to Shakib Al Hasan, nothing is ever that straightforward.

In his first tenure, Hathurusingha in a way made up for his rigid attitude with bold tactics. But this time, the boldness was missing. The once sharp tactician had turned into a meek coach, trying to do the bare minimum to safeguard his job.

Low strike rates and an inability to clear the ropes more frequently have long been Bangladesh’s stumbling blocks in the shortest format.

In the last six years, captains have come and gone, players have been swapped and changed, multiple coaches have had a crack, but Bangladesh’s fate in T20Is has more or less remained the same.

A huge mark-up in cash rewards has already turned the ninth edition of the tournament into a landmark event in women’s sports in general.

Shakib Al Hasan, a name that has been synonymous with the Bangladesh cricket team in all three formats for almost 18 years, called time on his T20I career yesterday at a press conference in Kanpur ahead of today’s second and final Test against hosts India, pulling down the curtain on an illustrious international career in the shortest format.

Claiming that the second day of the Chennai Test between Bangladesh and India yesterday was almost evenly matched may seem absurd, but this notion is not totally out of place, at least in one department.

India are unbeaten in home Test series since 2013, having won 17 straight Test series at home -- a world record -- drawing seven Tests, losing four and winning a staggering 40 home Tests in this period.

The recent Pakistan series could prove to be the juncture that cricket historians later point to as the moment when Miraz eclipsed Shakib in the race, at least in the red-ball format.

On Sunday at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led Bangladesh side presented one such spectacle when they defeated Pakistan in a Test match for the very first time.

Mushfiqur yesterday reached another such mountaintop in the first of two Tests against hosts Pakistan, becoming the first Bangladesh player to score a Test century in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka -- hence conquering the Asian summit.