Tigers’ cricketing tales sans bat and ball

Bangladesh stared amazing calendar within 22 yards in 2018 but there had few other off the ground matters to be distinguished. Some largely humours and rumours making affairs are explored here.

Tigers get perfect gurus at long last
Bangladesh started their 2018's cricket mission without any head coach as a consequence of Hathurusigha drama. Sudden controversial retirement of Sri Lanka origin coach Chandika Hathurusingha in October 2017, vacuumed the post of Tigers Cricket headmaster. BCB thus, announced senior cricketers name to play the role of head coach keeping Khaled Mahmud as the technical director during the tri-series accompanying Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka at home followed by three-match bilateral T20i series against Lankans in January-February. But the poor performances in twin series proved the decision wrong.
Bangladesh subsequently approached Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tom Moody, Geoff Marsh and Andy Flower to take the charge but they turned down the offer to join as Tigers' head coach. Besides, two interviewee Richard Pybus and Phil Simmons were employed by West Indies and Afghanistan correspondingly.
English assistant coach Paul Farbrace, who agreed to take the charge of head coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team, decided not to join after getting contract papers at hand. Zimbabwean ex-cricketer Richard Grant Halsall, the assistant coach of Hathuru regime also abdicated his duty in April.
Bangladesh cricket authority, therefore, named pace bowling coach Courtney Walsh as the interim head coach during crises periods. He coached Bangladesh in the Nidhahas Trophy in March and bilateral T20i series against Afghanistan in June.
South African cricketer and coach Gary Kirsten also refused to take the charge but arrived Bangladesh in May for three days with the duty of internal audit regarding the appointment of the head coach of Bangladesh national team.
Kirsten's counselling worked and BCB was successful to find out Englishman Steve Rhodes as the 11th head coach of Bangladesh national cricket team alongside his deputy Ryan Cook and former South Africa batsman Neil McKenzie as the batting consultant for Tigers.
Windian great Courtney Walsh and former Indian spinner Sunil Joshi are the two recruits among old coaching staffs to continue with the respective duties of pace and spin bowling advisors in Tigers den.
Still Tigers are not all-set with the new coaching staffs despite huge success since they don't have a red ball batting coach as McKenzie has apathy to coach Shakib and co. for longer versions.

Shakib calls off his players
Much controversial 19th over of the match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on March 16 repeated another nuisance to some critics while brave protection to many, which is Shakib Al Hasan's hectic decision to call Mahmudullah and Rubel back from the pitch.
The successive bouncer of the final over delivered by Isuru Udana was initially called a 'no ball' by the leg-umpire but he changed his mind that changed the weather of the match. Fury Shakib came at boundary line and called his men back. The crisis finally solved with the intervention of match officials.
Before Shakib, former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi called off his batsmen against Pakistan in the Sahiwal ODI in 1978 when Sarfraz Nawaz was allowed to bowl bouncers without any warning from the umpires. Another previous Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar called his players off in 1981 after giving a wrong LBW in favour of Dennis Lillie while Sri Lankan ex-skipper Arjuna Ranatunga left the ground to protest umpire Daryl Hair, who called several deliveries of Muttiah Muralitharan 'no ball' in 1994.

Australian Drama
According to the ICC's FTP, Australia were supposed to host Bangladesh in August-September last year. Cricket Australia cancelled the tour of Bangladesh for playing two Tests and three ODIs, since they didn't find the dual as "commercially viable".
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) proposed Cricket Australia (CA) to host ODI and T20 series as Australia pulled out of hosting the Tigers from ICC scheduled Test and ODI series last year. Now they are expecting to host Australia after the ICC World Cup 2019.
The latest bilateral series between Aussies and Tigers was the Australia's tour of Bangladesh in August-September 2017 while Bangladesh made their last Australia visit in 2008. Bangladesh were outstanding against Aussies at home two years back, who ended their two matches Test series with a draw.

Nagin Dance befalls the best
celebration of the year
Tigers spinner Nazmul Islam Apu always celebrates his wickets in a serpent way hooding his arms and curving his body. But his celebration theme earned more popularity than him, more viral than the Gangnam style dance.
Apu continues his celebration style in international events, who earned 60th Tigers T20i cap against Zimbabwe in February and international media picked the style.
The dance became symbol of mocking reply after Gunathilaka's 'Cobra reaction' targeting Apu in Sylhet in the second match of the bilateral T20i series. But it was Nidahas Trophy, which got 'Nagin' brand after Mushfiqur Rahim's 'Cobra Celebration'. Every cricket related chap more or less affected by the 'Cobra celebration' flue, which started with the Akila Dananjaya's cobra dance after caught Shakib Al Hasan in the 6th match of the triangular on March 16.
Even TV commentator and Indian ex-captain Sunil Gavaskar didn't mind to celebrate Rohit Sharma's batting against Bangladesh with a 'Nagin Dance'.
Wicked Stars lost their galaxy
Sabbir Rahman Rumman, Nasir Hossain and Mosaddek Hossain Shaikat were headlined for their off-field behavioural setback last year.
Sabbir caught the lime-light for his wrongheaded activities several times and the latest one was the social media outburst on a fan after the 2nd ODI between Bangladesh verses Windies on July 25 and slapped a six-month ban.
He was axed from the national contract for assaulting a fan during domestic first class session in December 2017. Sabbir also attacked his teammate Mehidy Miraz in Dehradun in June. He was fined during 2016 session's BPL for bringing female guest in hotel room without permission, who once appeared with girls on facebook page during international cricketing event as well.
Besides, Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik brought allegation against Sabbir Rahman that he teased Indian tennis star Sania Mirza four years ago, who is also the wife of Malik. Malik came in Bangladesh four years back for playing in a domestic league in Bangladesh when Sania accompanied her husband to spend some pastimes.
Sabbir eventually was not called for Asia Cup followed by couple of home series against Zimbabwe and Windies at home, who going to be free from all sorts of ban in January and resume his post-ban innings with the sixth BPL that is going to commence from January 5.
Like Sabbir, the bad boy Nasir, became talk topics on a couple of occasions, especially for illegal affairs. The latest inclusion was scandal tapes from a girl called Shah Humayra Suba which became viral and created lot of horny gossips among haters. He also will make his comeback after year long injury thru the BPL.
All-rounder Mosaddek Hossain Shaikat is the last name among bad boys of Bangladesh cricket, who divorced his wife Sharmin Samira Usha in August. But Usha filed a case in the Mymensingh Senior Judicial Magistrate Court no-1and alleged that Mosaddek tortured her and asked for bringing 10 lakh taka as dowry from her parents.
Besides these three names, national pacer Rubel Hossain was arrested in 2015 for his 'Happy scandal'. Another fast bowler Shahadat Hossain also detained for torturing housemaid. Arafat Sunny and Mohammad Shahid are two more Bangladesh cricketers, who had been penalised for abusive actions against their female counterparts.

Papon becomes ACC president
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan Papon was elected as the president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on November 17 during the AGM of the organization in Lahore, Pakistan. He succeeded Pakistan origin Ehsan Mani for the next two years tenure. Papon is the 27th head of the largest cricket authority in Asia.
As per ACC's rotation policy, the president of the organization for 2018-2020 was allotted for Bangladesh and Papon was chosen unanimously by the BCB director's panel. He is the fourth president of the ACC from Bangladesh after Anisul Islam Mahmud, Ali Asgar Lobi and AHM Mustofa Kamal. Mahmud led the Asian organization in 1989-91 while Lobi and Kamal were at the same position of the ACC in 2002-2004 and 2010-2012 respectively.

Mashrafe- the cricketer, the skipper and the law-maker
ODI skipper of Bangladesh national cricket team Mashrafe Bin Mortaza had been elected as the Member of Parliament on December 30 during the 11th National polls from Narail-2 constituency.
Mashrafe, 35, is the solitary cricketer in the long history of the sporting format to become the legislator during his sportsmanship career. He is the second cricketer of the country after Naimur Rahman Durjoy to be the law maker of Bangladesh.
Sanath Jayasuria of Sri Lanka and Sachin Tendulkar of India were among other international cricketers to become MP of their respective side's parliaments. Imran Khan of Pakistan was sworn for the Pakistan's premier post this year.
Earlier on May 29, the planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal revealed in a press meet that the ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza along with Test and T20i skipper Shakib Al Hasan will run in the next general elections.
The Tigers leader duo was set to collect nomination forms from Awami League. Shakib was seeking nomination for Magura-1 constituency but he changed his mind at the eleventh hour.
However, rumour spread around cricket arena regarding Mash's participation in the last ODI series against Windies at home, who blew up the gospel and set an example giving emphasize on cricket more than the national polls.
The Tigers speed star personally set his mind for the next World Cup. It means, the MP Mashrafe will captain Bangladesh in the World Cup 2019!