Mohammed Ashraful is lovingly called Ashraful Matin by his friends and family.
The right handed batsman and right arm occasional bowler still holds the record of being the cricketer to score a Test century.
Ashraful is the only player in the current national side who has seen the reign of five international coaches in his ten-year old career which, without a doubt makes him the most experienced man in the squad and adds to his credentials. As far as experience is concerned he could have been leading the team now but his fate had decided otherwise.
The promising youth who was destined to be the special one for Bangladesh was faced with the expectations of millions and it proved a little heavy for him and after a prolonged poor run Ashraful was dropped from England's first visit in October 2003.
However, that wasn’t the end. Ash made a strong comeback scoring unbeaten 158 runs against India at Chittagong in 2004.
His statement of being Bangladesh cricket’s future became even stronger after his match winning innings of 100 off 101 deliveries against Australia in the NatWest Series at Cardiff.
And all the criticism gave way to praises but sadly didn’t last for long again. Soon the ‘Ashar-Ful’, named by the national Bangla Dailies, meaning the ‘ray of hope’ had another nightmare run against Sri Lanka failing to impress which continued against Australia in 2006 and was eventually ‘dropped’.
The man, who after 162 innings averages 22.78 runs, was dropped before the final qualifying match of the Champions Trophy against Zimbabwe and had to spend that way during the home series against Zimbabwe.
This was the second instance when Ashraful got the bitter taste of being excluded from the side. But the Gladiator soon fought back and forced the team management to call him in again after he scored a magnificent 263 for Dhaka Division in the domestic four-day competition.
The leap from a performer to the captaincy didn’t take long for the then 22-year old Ashraful. His performances made him clinch the post of the captain in 2007. But, the two years he passed as the national captain are often considered as the toughest in his career. His performance graph went down along with the leadership as he failed to ‘make things happen’.
Failing to get results for the nation, in his two years as a skipper not only made Bangladesh Cricket Board relieve him form his post but put the right handed batsman’s career under threat as well. The little maestro has ever since trying to find his footing in the national squad.
In the ongoing BCB Cup, Ashraful once again displayed his talent scoring a blazing 83 against his main stream colleagues which gives the cricket fans raise the question again, ‘Is he back?’
It is known that he had complains against how the team worked and tagged them as reasons for his under performance.
Now the wind has changed its direction. The Board which was tensed of not being able to control the young cricketers has won the war. But the question remains, will this allow Ashraful to expand his wings again?
Posted in: News
0 comments:
Post a Comment