The fifth version of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) came to an end, producing many eventful incidents, as it was expected. As usually there were positive outcomes and there were some negative incidents but the passion was palpable. There was huge buzz across the country as the people were engrossed into it. The Independent looked into the stories behind the stories in two parts what happened during the one and half months long tournament.
Nasir’s delay
The fifth edition of BPL started with Sylhet Sixers captain Nasir Hossain’s six-minute delay to the toss against Dhaka Dynamites in the opening game. And the delay earned him a one demerit point. Why he made delay to the toss was officially unknown, but the popular reason of delay was that he was in the washroom at that time and couldn’t understand that time has been elapsed. But whatever it was, the authority didn’t take the matter lightly.
Former captain joins BBC!
As Comilla Victorians young all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin was busy answering questions in a post-match conference, suddenly a person raised his hands from the back room to ask a question. The journalists there weren’t much interested to behind who is the man but Saifuddin’s face seemed to be red-faced. “How did you feel between losing the first game and winning this one?—the question was asked and then the journalists, sitting in the front row, understood the voice is so known. They looked behind and identified the question was made by former skipper Khaled Mashud Pilot. After the press conference Mashud was asked which media house he works for. “BBC Rajshahi,” was the light-hearted reply.
Married Taskin makes debut in cricket
Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed came to play the tournament as a married person. In fact the tournament started just five days after his marriage with his long time girlfriend. The colour of ‘Mehedi’ was still on his hands, giving his teammates a chance to make jokes on him more often than not. Even the players of the opponents did take the chance to quip.
Taskin’s young lady followers
There was placard in the stadium to wish the good luck of Taskin Ahmed. It was not a strange scene but still produced some curiosity because those placard were raised by the young ladies, teen-aged girls. Taskin was believed to anger his lady fan-followers by marrying at the age of just 22. People, mostly the young ladies lashed him out in the social media outlet that surely came out of frustration. In fact Taskin was their dream boy. The placard is believed to mean that the lady follower perhaps came out of trauma of his marriage.
Saifuddin’s redemption
Young seaming all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin allowed David Miller hit the fastest century of T20 International by conceding 31 runs including five straight sixes in his last over the innings and thereby ended up with bowling figure of 4-0-53-2. Those two wickets were Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, unarguably the finest batsmen of this era. But the happy memory was completely shattered by Miller’s onslaught, leaving him blank-faced. He though latter said he forgot the memory as the tour was ended, deep inside him, definitely a memory like this haunted him. Only a good performance could give him some relief and that came finally in the match against Chittagong Vikings. The Comilla bowler Saifuddin registered a match-winning bowling figure of 4-0-24-3 to be adjudged man of the match.
Five foreign players justified!
Local batsmen’s inability to match with the performance of the foreign players brought the question to the fore if the BPL governing council’s decision to field five overseas players is justified! No domestic league around the world so far saw more than four overseas players in their league but BPL governing council did it by the pressure of the franchisees. This move was criticised but the way the local batsmen fared, compared to the overseas batsmen, it is now a fact whether the move of playing five overseas players is justified!
Roy’s anger, Mashrafe speechless
Unarguably the most negative incident of the tournament is the verbal spat between Shuvashis Roy and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza wasn’t expected to formally reveal exactly what he said to Shuvashis Roy but form what it was seen from the press box, he definitely told something, consisted of two words. Roy was ultra-aggressive in his reaction that left everyone present in the stadium in shocking state, considering he was angrily shouting to a player who is highly respected amongst the Bangladeshi players and fans and also his captain in ODI team. From the pressbox, it is clearly understood, Mashrafe was total speechless by the reaction of Roy. He even couldn’t gather any word to reply. Roy wasn’t found immediately for the reaction but Mashrafe latter said he should restrain himself being a senior player. Latter in an informal discussion Mashrafe said he told Shuvashis just ‘go’ to which according to Mashrafe, Shuvashis showed ‘smart’ reaction. However Shuvashis apologised to Mashrafe.
Taskin out of trauma!
Amid the foreign players domination in the first part of the BPL Saifuddin was the first local player to produce a match-winning performance to put a shed on his horrific performance in South Africa. Taskin Ahmed then followed his suit. As the second local player in the ongoing BPL, he was adjudged man of that match, producing a magic spell and returned figures of three for 31 in four overs. Later he said he learnt many things from the horrific South Africa series and it helped him sorting out the mistakes that he did.
One boundary in 10 overs!
Chittagong Vikings’ innings against Rangpur Riders was just the carbon-copy of their innings against Comilla Victorians in the first match. The only difference is that they won the match this time. When Bopara had Ronchi caught at long-on, Chittagong were 99 for 2 in the 8.5 overs. Ronchi had made 78 of those runs, smacking seven fours and seven sixes. Munaweera struck Samiullah Shenwari for a six over midwicket at the end of the 10th over, but there was no boundary for 50 balls from that point. The only boundary in the last 10 overs came from Misbah, who was unbeaten on 31 off 32 balls.
Mashrafe’s 0
As Rangpur Riders captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza started the BPL mission against Rajshahi Kings with the jersey number 0, it generated huge curiosity amongst his fans as they continuously asked the question in the social media outlet about the reason behind the 0. Later Mashrafe cleared the air by saying that he needs a change and that’s why he changed the jersey number.
“I started the career with 20 and after playing with that jersey for a long time, I reduced the 0 to make the jersey number 2. Now I think I need a change. So I took the number 0,” Mashrafe explained. However what he didn’t explain that he needs further inspiration as he eye to play the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
(2nd part to be published tomorrow)