Ashfaq-Ul-Alam

Tamim had a chance to rewrite the ending by taking part in the ICC Champions Trophy, starting next month, but eventually chose not to.

“I only get Tk 3000 as allowance per month apart from accommodation and food in the national camp. They are giving me an additional Tk 2000 as house rent since I got married… There is no future playing for the national team,” Bangladesh’s star archer Ruman Sana said to The Daily Star in March last year, explaining why he no longer wants to play for the national team.

As for the year that is winding down, it was neither an overarching triumph nor a debilitating failure. The stench of mediocrity was present, but so was vivacious tenacity. Above all, it was an interesting year in cricket for Bangladesh -- one that fans would not forget soon.

The chaotic results column is overall a good sign for Test cricket.

Chances of Taskin Ahmed waking up super early in St Kitts, take time out of his preparation for the first ODI against West Indies to watch the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup in the UAE yesterday are quite slim.

One of Aesop's renowned fables, 'The goose that laid the golden egg', imparts a timeless lesson: too much greed can ruin one's fortune. It also highlights the value of patience -- a virtue the Bangladesh Cricket Board could embrace to nurture the immense potential of one of their brightest prospects, Nahid Rana.

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.