Nabid Yeasin

A fluke or just a good day at the office may see a minnow defeating a powerhouse once in a while but for a team to win any major trophy requires long-term planning and proper execution.

From Shoriful Islam’s pace, bounce and swing with the new ball and his effective yorkers with the old one that left batsmen rooted to the ground at the death to Parvez Hossain Emon’s audacity to smash the fastest T20 hundred by a Bangladeshi to help chase down a 221-run total to Shamim Hossain’s breathtaking fielding, the recently concluded Bangabandhu T20 Cup showed the youngsters’ prowess throughout.

Shakib Al Hasan’s return to cricket after serving a year-long ban was expected to be the most discussed topic among fans and media. And so it proved from day one, when he was officially allowed to be reinstated in cricketing activities on the morning of October 29.

“I hope many more girls in our country will focus more on playing cricket and work on their fitness in order to achieve something for their country after seeing my performance or Jahanra’s [Alam] performance,” Salma Khatun said after helping Trailblazers win the Women’s T20 Challenge for the first time.

Today marks 20 years of Bangladesh’s Test journey. And when the Naimur Rahman-led Tigers, donned in the all-white jersey for the first time, stepped onto the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on November 10, 2000, to face Sourav Ganguly’s India, cricket lovers rejoiced at the start of what they hoped would be an enthralling journey.

“Maybe give the guys a bit of breathing space,” said Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo in a virtual conference on Thursday, urging the media not to “harshly judge” players over a few days of cricket in the ongoing intra-squad BCB President’s Cup.

“I had got out a couple of times to balls bowled outside off stump. So I decided not to play the cover-drive. They were bowling consistently outside the off stump, and I decided to leave all those balls,” were the words of the great Sachin Tendulkar after he played an unbeaten 241-run knock without a single drive through the off side during the Sydney Test of India’s 2004 tour.

What was missing in the BCB President’s Cup in the first two matches was found to some extent in the third match of the 50-over tournament between Najmul XI and Tamim XI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Thursday.

Despite England’s five-year unbeaten record in home series coming to an end when Australia’s Mitchell Starc swept Adil Rashid for a boundary at Old Trafford in the third ODI on Wednesday, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) would still have been proud of what they achieved this summer -- cricket’s first summer in a bio-secure bubble.

For a board that has been stressing on the importance of players’ safety and putting their health issues above all since the start of the pandemic,

Young Bangladesh opener Saif Hassan tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday. But did that change any plans in proceedings for other cricketers? The simple answer is no. Players yesterday again resumed individual training at different BCB facilities across the country following a few days’ gap after a few members of the support staff had displayed coronavirus-like symptoms.

Barcelona and Lionel Messi -- the two names have always been synonymous and the 33-year-old left-footed genius had limitless moments of greatness with the Blaugrana.

Historically, Bangladesh have been reliant on spin, especially in the longest version. While having spinners bowl the lion’s share of the overs in a Test innings is the norm, there have also been instances of the Tigers taking the field with only specialised spinners and no pacers in the bowling attack.

“I cannot say what the result would have been but had Shakib [bhai] been with us in the tour, he surely would have impacted the game differently,”

Since the postponement of the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) in mid-March in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, uncertainty is all that has swirled around Bangladesh cricket.

Is cricket in Bangladesh really as glamorous as it seems? Those who harbour the notion that a career in cricket will always offer a glorious life will be dumbfounded when they dig deeper into the matter.

“It is just boring spending time at home. How much longer can one sit idle at home?,” Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Akbar Ali chuckled as he wondered when he could return to the field and hone his batting and wicketkeeping skills.

The world now can sense the return of cricket following the coronavirus pandemic that had halted proceedings since March. Top-level cricket already returned at Old Trafford on June 23 when the visiting West Indies played an intra-squad warm-up match ahead of their three-Test series against England, scheduled to start from July 8. Pakistan, who are due to play three Tests followed by as many T20I against England in August, have already reached the country and are currently undergoing a 14-day mandatory quarantine before playing intra-squad practice matches. Even Sri Lanka had resumed training earlier in June.

There is no denying what the world has endured in the past few months will leave a lasting impact. That is also true of the country’s cricket, which like other sports has been halted since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the new normal very much in mind, sporting activities have slowly started to resume around the world. That is not yet the case for Bangladesh, one of the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but with the resumption of cricket on the horizon.