Bangladesh deserves more limelight after successful 2015 – Mashrafe

Mashrafe Mortaza thinks his Bangladesh team-mates deserve more limelight after a successful 2015 in international cricket. To add to that, they have started 2016 with two successive wins over Zimbabwe in the T20Is despite a few key players being injured.

“It is really inspiring to have a book written about me at the fag end of my career,” Mashrafe said at the launch of his biography written by Debabrata Mukherjee. “I wish that those in the Bangladesh team have books written about them. People will know more about them. I feel that our whole team is playing with a coordinated effort and that includes the players, coaches and the board as well.”

Mashrafe said that Bangladesh would continue to experiment with their combinations in the third T20 against Zimbabwe on January 20, and some of it would be forced after they rested Mustafizur Rahman and Al-Amin Hossain, while Mushfiqur Rahim was ruled out after a hamstring injury.

“We are without two quick bowlers in Mustafizur and Al-Amin so we will have to replace them. Mushfiqur is also injured so there have to be three changes in any case,” he said.

The programme was attended by the entire Bangladesh team present in Khulna along with the coaching staff. The organisers arranged a unique press conference, with the floor being thrown open to the Bangladesh players to fire away questions to their captain.

Imrul Kayes queried about a possible autobiography from Mashrafe, while Taskin Ahmed wondered if he ever thought a boo would be written about him when he started playing. Trainer Mario Villavarayan, not surprisingly, asked how he managed to bounce back from numerous injuries that have hampered him over the course of the last 14 years. Mashrafe, who was jocular mostly, got a touch emotional with his response, recalling the tough times he had to face while being out injured.

The programme warmed up when Tamim Iqbal asked Mashrafe about their gym times, while coach Chandika Hathurusingha joked about Mashrafe’s mannerisms before the start of a match. Mahmudullah said that when Mashrafe became Bangladesh captain for the first time in 2009, he had given each team member a letter to tell them what is expected of them.