Ignominy and brilliance, Shakib headlines Bangladesh’s pretty disappointing 2019
Photo - ICC
|| CF Correspondent ||
There were lots of ups and downs in Bangladesh cricket in 2019 but all said and done it remained obvious that in evolved around Shakib al Hasan as he was the symbol of hope and despair.
While the all-rounder had a fairy tale World Cup where his teammates failed to compliment him on the field, he also failed to live up to his reputation by earning the ICC ban for failing to report an approach by bookies.
It stunned the whole nation as they were unable to digest the fact and it took quite some time for them to let it sunk in along with witnessing the topsy-turvy journey of the Tigers when they endured a number of ups and downs, with the downs perhaps steeper than the ups.
Two BPL in one year
The year began with the BPL and coming to end with BBPL as well due to the fact two edition of the Twenty20 tournament was fitted in 2019 as the sixth season of BPL had to be rescheduled for January due to the national election that was originally scheduled to take place in December 2018.
Comilla Victorians lifted the trophy that also happened to complete the first cycle of the tournament and later BCB decided not to renew the contract of the franchises citing that the franchises were making unreasonable demands.
Instead, BCB opted to host the seventh edition of BPL on their own and decided to name it as the Bangabandhu BPL to celebrate the birth anniversary of the father of the nation.
As there were no big shots and cricket not being played with the same intensity as it was when the franchises were involved fans failed to show up at the venues and the quality of cricket leaving a lot to be desired.
The horrific New Zealand tour
Bangladesh’s international calendar for the year started with the tour of New Zealand, which remained memorable for off-the-field misfortune. Bangladesh lost the ODI series 3-0 and lost the first two matches of the three-Test series. The third Test was abandoned due to what became an infamous terror attack at two mosques of Christchurch leaving 51 dead. Some of the players were in the vicinity of the Al Noor Mosque to say their Jumma prayers when the carnage erupted, leaving them visibly shaken and in no condition to continue the tour. It was duly called off.
The panic gripped cricketers left New Zealand immediately but with a permanent scar in their mind, skipping the third Test. But before that, they lost the first two Tests by an innings margin after being peppered by a barrage of shorts by the Kiwi bowlers.
Bangladesh major trophy
Despite their repeated success in bilateral series, especially in ODI cricket, Bangladesh lacked a multinational trophy.
However, the trophy drought ended in Ireland when the Irish hosted a tri-nation tournament ahead of the World Cup. West Indies was the third team of that tournament.
Bangladesh moved into the final in the double-leg tournament and beat West Indies in the final by five wickets to lift the trophy on May 17, 2019. Earlier, they lost six finals across the format of cricket but became lucky on the seventh time.
The ratio of success and failures
Bangladesh played 30 matches this year across the format. If we count the success, it was all gloom. Bangladesh played five Test matches and lost all duly-four defeats came by an innings margin. At the start of the year, Bangladesh played two Test matches against New Zealand and lost those by an innings margin.
At the end of the year, they lost two Test matches against India, also lost by innings margin including one in their maiden pink-ball Test.
In the middle of the year, they lost the one-off Test against Afghanistan and that too after failing to survive just one hour in the rain-curtailed game. The defeat was seen as the lowest ebb of the country’s cricket.
Bangladesh played 18 ODIs and won just seven. The good thing is that they won their first trophy in a tournament involving more than two teams. That trophy came just ahead of the World Cup when Bangladesh played a tri-nation series in Ireland that also involved West Indies.
Bangladesh beat West Indies to clinch the trophy and went to England with high hopes of sealing the semifinal berth in the World Cup.
They began with a bang, beating South Africa and then also beat teams like West Indies and Afghanistan before experiencing a downhill spiral and eventually finished the cricket’s biggest extravaganza at the eighth-placed team. Bangladesh played seven T20s and won four, including a maiden win against India in Delhi.
Huge overhaul in the coaching set-up
Bangladesh brought up sweeping changes to their coaching staff, responding to the failure of the World Cup. Head coach Steve Rhodes was sacked along with fast bowling coach Courtney Walsh, spin bowling coach Sunil Joshi, physio Thihan Chandromohan.
South African Russell Domingo was named a new head coach while Charl Langeveldt replaced Walsh. Daniel Vettori was announced as new spin bowling coach while South African Julian Calfato was appointed as a new physio. Charl Langeveldt, however, was released later as he joined the South African national team as a bowling coach.
Journey Starts for World Test Championship
Even though Bangladesh often finds them in a vulnerable state in the longer version format, they became the part of the World Test Championship, introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) this year.
With the two-match Test series against India in November, Bangladesh entered into this tournament. But sadly for them, they lost two Test matches and languished at the bottom of the point table.
Historical day-night Test
Bangladesh was supposed to play their first day-night Test in the pink ball on their tour in New Zealand but they refused to play. However, they entered into the unknown territory of the pink-ball Test with their second Test against India. The second Test between Bangladesh and India converted to day-night Test due to the keen desire of BCCI’s newly appointed president Sourav Ganguly.
Like Bangladesh, India also had reservations about the day-night Test but Ganguly, the former India skipper, convinced both India and Bangladesh to play the pink-ball Test.
The Test was held in Ganguly’s home town Kolkata’s historic Eden Gardens. The match was the 12th pink-ball Test in the cricket history with both Bangladesh and India playing their first.
Bangladesh, however, survived only two days and 47 minutes in the Test before conceding an innings and 46-run defeat. But the Test was held amid the fanfare as Ganguly invited many dignitaries including the players of Bangladesh’s maiden Test.
Ganguly started the journey of Indian captaincy when he led the team against Bangladesh in their inaugural Test in 2000.
Ganguly and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which the Bangladeshi premier gleefully accepted. Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the pink-ball Test, which was also the subcontinent's first-ever day-night Test, ringing Eden’s historic bell.
Players strike
There was no indication that such things could happen. Players’ strike against BCB came at a moment when Bangladesh cricket was going through a lean phase following their Test defeat to Afghanistan and at the same time when the preparation for tough India series is set to start.
Led by Shakib Al Hasan, the country’s first-class cricketers called an indefinite strike to fulfill their 11-point demand. Later they added two more points to make it 13. For at least three days, all activities of cricket were stopped until BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon came up with a solution.
He, however, agreed to all of the demands of the players and asked them to return to the ground. Responding to his request, the players lifted the strike. After this revolt of the cricketers, the match fee for first-class cricketers was raised by 100 percent.
The cricketers who took part in the National Cricket League 2019 were paid the increased amount. At the same time, BCB increased the facilities available during the First-Class matches.
BCB in turmoil
While the on-field performance of the players was not up to the mark, the BCB also went through some bad experiences internally. One of the directors of BCB, Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan was arrested for unlawful possession of alcohol, during the country-wide drive against gambling and casino.
Lokman was the director-in-charge of the country’s traditional and popular club Mohammedan Sporting Club from which RAB and Police also captured nine gambling decks, two roulette tables, and other ingredients.
Apart from Lokman, other BCB director Mahbub Anam also summoned by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Those two incidents were embarrassing for BCB.
Gold medal in SA Games
In South Asian Games, Bangladesh men’s and women’s cricket team achieved gold, which is considered as a success. However, the Bangladesh male team is formed with the Under-23 team but most of the players were the regular national players.
Women’s cricket was added for the first time in Games history. Both male and female team beat Sri Lanka in the final to clinch the gold.
The hero and the villain of the year
Shakib Al Hasan might find him being banned by ICC but he is the only reason for which Bangladesh cricket gets some cheering moment in an otherwise a pretty disappointing year.
The Bangladesh team failed miserably after having a decent start in the cricket’s biggest extravaganza ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 but Shakib came up with a dazzling performance to make it a tournament to remember.
In doing so he made a number of records. He struck two centuries and five half-centuries in eight matches. The one match in which he couldn’t pass 50, he made 41 runs. At the same time, he took 11 wickets. Above all, he scored 606 runs at a staggering average of 86.57.
By doing so, he became the only player in the World Cup’s history to have scored 500 plus runs and 10 plus wickets in a single edition of the tournament. His two centuries came against mighty England and West Indies. He also made the double of 5000 runs and 250 wickets in the quickest time. But it’s not the end of the world for him. He is the first cricketer who took part in three consecutive World Cup as a top-ranked all-rounder.
He became the second Bangladeshi cricketer to score two consecutive centuries in World Cup after Mahmudullah. He became the first cricketer in the world who scored a half-century in the first match of his team in four World Cups in a row. He became the first Bangladeshi cricketer to score 1000 runs in world cup. He became the second cricketer in the World Cup to score a half-century and five wickets after Yuvraj Singh. He became the first Bangladeshi batsman to score 600 plus runs in a single World Cup.
Unarguably the biggest shock of the country’s cricket experienced since their berth as a cricketing nation. The news of Shakib’s ban came a day after he successfully led the cricketers’ revolt against the BCB.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) found Shakib culpable of hiding the corrupt approaches to him by a bookie. That was not for just a single time, according to the version of ICC, Shakib didn’t report them for three times.
A Whatsapp conversation between him and bookie Deepak Agarwal was captured by ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit in the last year and they dug deep into the matter to find Shakib guilty. Deepak Agarwal was a suspected bookie earlier and ICC always closely monitored him. According to ICC, Shakib was not directly involved in match-fixing or other corruptions but he was guilty of not informing ICC about his conversation with Agarwal.
And judging the extent of the matter, they banned Shakib for two years, with one year of that suspended. If Shakib does the things according to the ICC’s rules and regulations in this one year, he would be eligible to come back in cricket on October 29, 2020.
Shakib’s suspension came at a moment when Bangladesh was preparing for a tough tour in India. Due to the ban, Shakib missed the first tour of Bangladesh to India for a full series. Following his suspension, ICC axed him from all kinds of rankings and other activities of ICC. And therefore Shakib’s name is not in any kind of ICC ranking at this moment. Shakib accepted the sanction and expressed his desire to bounce back stronger once the ban is lifted.
