Which are the most memorable moments of Bangladesh cricket to date according to you?

[Shehwar]

Memorable moment doesn’t always necessarily mean happy moments…at least not in my case….For me the most memorable moment still is the defeat at the hands of Kenya in the ’94 ICC Trophy….A defeat which shattered our hopes of playing in the ’96 World Cup…I was only in the 5th grade then....the match was being broadcasted by Radio Bangladesh…It was a must win match for us to make the semi-final as we had lost to the much fancied Netherlands in the previous match…We fielded first going into the match with only one genuine seam bowler in Dulu (Our main strike bowler GM Nowsher Prince[Currently a selector] being injured!) and at one stage the host were 74-1 after 25 overs….& then everything started to go horribly wrong….An unknown guy called Morris Odumbe started to hit the ball at all corners of the park & a young SLA called Sarfaddaula Ibne Shahid Shaikat was taken to the cleaners who had performed pretty well prior to the ongoing match…By the end of 50 overs they had scored a mammoth 295/6!....For some strange reason Bulbul was sent into the opening slot with the regular opener Jahangir and it worked like magic!...I remember jumping up & down with every boundary being hit by our openers…the commentators were getting into the act as well…139 without loss after 24 overs with a makeshift opener playing strokes at will!!...The start was beyond our wildest of imaginations..!..And then Bulbul got out for 74…the commentators were saying that it was one hell of a catch….the very next ball Jahangir got run out for a well made half-century….We still had a very strong batting line up & were always in with a chance….But slow batting from Akram Khan who took ages to score his 30 & Faruk (Now the chief selector!) put us under too much pressure….Nannu tried his bit with 60 odd but all in vain…Salim Shahed came & went...I remember Athar Ali(Another Selector) hit a six in the last over but it was all a little too late…..282/8 after 50 overs….!!....A defeat by 13 runs! It was a gallant effort by our boys….I couldn’t help shedding a few tears…!!...For me it was the end of the world…It was as if I had nothing to look forward to….Because ever since I had heard that three teams from the ICC Trophy were gonna participate in the ’96 World Cup there was this expectation deep down inside of making it into big time cricket…Plus we were fancied as well…..We were seeded second behind Netherlands…I had bought a T-shirt before the ICC Trophy started which said ‘ONEK ASHAR NEIKO SHESH, BISHSHO CUP E BANGLADESH’ ….Its something I’ll remember all my life….I just wanted to share this feeling with my fellow countrymen….I wanted to let ppl know that all that pain is now gone…It doesn’t really hurt inside anymore when I look back at it because we are here where we wanted to be…We are playing test cricket !!....We are playing World Cup at a regular basis!!...Those who haven’t shared the pains of ICC ’94 and the joys of ICC ’97 can never realize what I feel & can never have the sort of satisfaction that I have deep down inside….It just feels like a DREAM !....

Scorecard

Edited on, February 17, 2005, 6:56 AM GMT, by Shehwar.

[Mahir]

It feels real good to see someone posting such a message, about those disheartening moments of Bangladesh cricket. Well, Shewar has said it all... I was in Grade 1, and I had an exam the next day, but I too left everything behind and hung close to the radio set... sighh... and if I remember correctly, Athar's 6 was indeed a little late, and he was sent that down in the batting order because of an injury that he picked up while fielding in the first innings. Bulbul was therefore sent opening, and as Shewar said, it worked like magic!

Well, if I were to list down some of the most memorable moments of Bangladesh cricket (in my lifetime), it would be (in order of occurance, recent-most first) :

- Aftab's 24-run over in the 5th ODI against Zimbabwe this year
- First Test match win
- Defeating India in the 2nd ODI of the series last December
- Ashraful's magical knock of 158* in the 2nd Test against India
- First Test match against India
- Beating Pakistan in the WC 99 (Shahriar's masterful batting, although a short innings of only 39 runs)
- Bangladesh's highest opening partnership of 170+ runs against Zimbabwe in Meril Cup in 1998
- First ODI win in Bangalore against Kenya
- Shahriar's two centuries in two innings against MCC
- Shanto's 1 run (although a leg-bye) in the last ball to win the Final.
- Akram single-handedly winning the decisive match against Holland in the ICC Trophy 97
- Bangladesh winning a limited over match against India (forgot which year it was)
- Scoring 301 against Uganda in ICC Trophy 1994

[feisal]

shehwar,

good description..i was a 26 old man at that time..some 8/10 people were together when Mintu bhai was giving the commentary.. you probbaly got one thing wrong akram khan was NOT slow.. he was in such aform it was difficult to be slow at that time.. we needed 82 of last 10.. and in that over Moni was bowled by Asif karim, after he took the wicket of Faruque in the same over...Also, Shaikat the spinner opened the bowling.. but for some strange reason his 2/3 overs were left and he went for plenty in those last overs.. also, Odumbe was missed by Jahangir.. stumping..

since u raised that up..u need to know this.. i had the opportunity to talk with someone who played in that match.. on the very day the team had a very hard physical training and everyone was dog tired.. there was also severe demotivation in the team.. many people even did not want to play.. meaningless now to name them.. but faruque the captain did agood job in persuading people to play.. and also it is alleged that prince was not THAT unfit.. we just did not have any other fit seamer..

[feisal]

shehwar,

did not see that you had the sorecard posted too... if u look carefully you will see 56 runs were added in the 3rd wicket partnership.. and akram got 30 of that.. Nannu was out in the last over.. so that expalins that Akram's innings was not that slow.. tragedy is that he got out before cutting loose!!!

[fwullah]

That loss had made us lose at least 4 years of our International cricket. If we had won that tournament - ICC trophy 1994, we could have gained test status before the year 2000.

When I look at our history of ICC trophy tournament - days - all those pains & agonies, I still wonder why do people say that ICC was too early to give us test status. We have suffered enough in those times - I think that no other team has suffered as we have suffered.

[couger]

As for my most memorable moment I'd choose 1997 ICC Finals. I was in Dhaka for four days totally by chance and was able to participate in the celebrations after we won the Championship.

[couger]

Beating Pakistan in 1999 is a very close second.

[feisal]

in fact, the agony was only in 94 where we were favourites.. and 3 teams could qualify.. In all other outing Zimbo were just class apart from the rest and only one team could qualify anyway.. and to be honest, there was just no expectation at all.. (zimbo beat aussies TWICE in 83, beat england in 92, gave kiwis a run in 87..) .. and had players like curren, pycroft, traicos, traicos, brandes, and off course houghton. No associate member had a match for that. We lost to zimb in semi finals two times.. during the 89-90 one, we gave them a fright..

[oracle]

I have had the opportunity to see many BD matches but sadly i belong to the legions of fans that have never seen BD win or come very close to a win in REAL life, i.e in an actual stadium. (Yes, on TV we saw all the exciting moments such as the ICC trophy, WC against Pak etc..)

However, this happened when i was at first ODI against West Indies last year. I cannot describe that feeling of "imminent' joy when you are one wicket from victory. Especially, if you are possibly one of a handful in the crowd supporting an away team.

As such, the most memorable moment for me personally was the first ODI against West Indies 2004 . It really inspired me to continue my belief in the team.

Lastly, would like to post these articles I wrote that convey my experiences:

On ODI 3 against WI 2004:
article2004

And on just "memorable" moments in this board that touched me:
article 2004

Edited on, February 17, 2005, 9:01 AM GMT, by oracle.

[green_cat]

i will choose the 1997 match bet'n bd and holland. without akram we can't goto semifinals. i will always remember that commentry in radio. i was so tense.

[shaheen]

I would take the latest batting of Aftab and Rafique against Zim.
That was a real batsman's batting.

[Mr-khan]

9th Batsman is Atahar ali khan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shehwar]

Yeah....Poor Athar Ali has alwayz had this problem....Whenever there was a potentially big chase he wud be pushed down the order...In fact in the '97 ICC Trophy final against Kenya he didn't even get to bat....From being a opener he went right down to number eleven !!!

PS: Feisal bro thanx for the correction...I guess Faruk must have been slow then..cuz i clearly remember being irritated by one of the batsman's strike rate...

[Ahmed_B]

Originally posted by fwullah
That loss had made us lose at least 4 years of our International cricket. If we had won that tournament - ICC trophy 1994, we could have gained test status before the year 2000.

yea.. this was completely heart-breaking.
I remember the moment the match ended, it felt as if it is the end of BD-cricket for ever. The first thing that came to my mind was "We have to bear this pain for the next 4 years! OMG.. how can we do that?!!"

Lookin back to those moments.. wow... we have come such a long way already!!

Thanx shehwar.. memories of that match is now giving me a feeling of looking at the other half of the glass which is 'full' now (things we already achieved)... not just the empty half(which we havn't achieved yet).

[akabir77]

Shehwar Thanks for bring those bad memory back to tell you the truth thats also my memorable moments too. Normally my parents r not interested in sports and me and my brother use to go out to the field without their knowledge... anyway i still remember that day like it happen yesterday. i was listening to the commentery and was excited so much that my father came to hold me/come me down... at the end of the game i had 104 degree fever..... and i was quit young too at that time. That was the first time my father showed some interest on cricket.... and even though i am far away from him(in USA) he still call us right after any good match/win of BD...

And after ward i found out that ather ali didn't want to open cause he was scared and then bulbul volunteer for that position and also even though we knew that ken CANNOT play spin we didn't play the off spinner (who got lots of wk i can't remmebr the nm).. And the coach hadfight with captain nanu and it was also thought/suspected that he took money from kenya before that game or some thing cause he didn't even return with the team and etc etc

[abu_akif]

ICC 1997, our match against Holland is my best memory. I will never forget that scenario. In that match, Akram was clever enough to ask for helmet just before the rain started, and in the mean time, rain came just before 19 over to be started. So we avoided the rain law. If we would have got a draw because of rain, or if we have lost that match, we would not have been in the semifinals that year. Instead Holland would go up. That would mean that we would not have been able to get ODI status and subsequent test status.

I was there in that field in Kuala Lumpur. We, a bunch of Bangladeshi students in Malaysia, went there together. To my surprise, there were some Indians there, who were very happy at the prospect that the match may be abandoned and we may get only 1 point and so we would have been out of ICC 1997. I was sad with their behavior, because I would always support an Asian team agaisnt any other teams.

That day, I had a short chat with Asim Khan (I hope I remember his name correct), the dutch-pakistani pacer. He told me that though he is playing for Holland, he would like Bangladesh to win, because he thought that we were a better team than them. He had a very good first spell, removing 3 of BD top order, I especially remember a very unplayable ball to Bulbul and Bulbul was caught amazingly. Bulbul also could not understand anything before he saw that he was out. What was sad from some of our fans was that, they started to hurl abuses to this Pakistani-Dutch guy, calling him Rajakar, bla bla bla. He was sad with their behavior. Gordon Grinidge came and calmed those BD guys down.

There was a BD fan who was a Hafez-e-Quran. When Akram was batting in the middle, he started to read Quran going around the boundary of the whole field. And there were some other guys following him around the whole field. I could still imagine the emotion of those guys. Grenidge came seeing these guys together walking close to the boundary and asked us, what they were doing. When we explained him, he was happy and surprised to see the die-hard fans.

As long as BD cricket will go on, I will always remember this day. And definitely, I will always remember Akram Khan for his intelligence and stamina of playing that innings.

Edited on, February 17, 2005, 2:51 PM GMT, by abu_akif.

[feisal]

abu_akif,

amazing....thanks for sharing..

[2007WcSemifinalist]

abu_akif
"There was a BD fan who was a Hafez-e-Quran. When Akram was batting in the middle, he started to read Quran going around the boundary of the whole field."......

"Grenidge came seeing these guys together walking close to the boundary and asked us, what they were doing. When we explained him, he was happy and surprised to see the die-hard fans. ....."

Amazing..awesome ...bd will win the following world cup inshaallah

[offcutter]

Originally posted by mr-khan
9th Batsman is Atahar ali khan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No he was 11th, if you're talking about 1997 ICC Final.

[offcutter]

I would choose 1997 ICC. Bangladesh went mad and I'll never forget the celebration.

[Sham]

For me it would have to be the WC match against Pakistan for two reasons:

1) I was at the ground in Northampton and
2) Beating Pakistan will always give me more pleasure than beating most other teams!

I know the original poster said that a defeat could also be the most memorable moment, but I can't imagine a defeat ever being more memorable than a win for me! However, if I have to choose the three defeats that were most depressing, they are (in random order), Kenya in ICC 94, Canada in WC 03 and Pakistan in Multan!

[AsifTheManRahman]

I would choose the 1997 ICC trophy finals. The way we came back that day to win a thriller was simply unbelievable. The players actually played as a team throughout the whole tournament, and when they finally won the trophy, the feeling was extraordinary.

[bourny3]

First test win
ODI win against India in 100th ODI
Pakistan win in World cup
Test series win
ODI series win from 0-2 down.

[babubangla]

Shehwar: Thanks for the touchy post. You really took me back to those days. Yes, I remember that very T-shirt...‘ONEK ASHAR NEIKO SHESH, BISHSHO CUP E BANGLADESH’ ...owao..what an amazing and emotional words this T-shirt had!! After reding you post, I remembered..it was a February evening, I was at the Ekushay Boi Mela that moment...selling my pocket-book "Romantic Dictionary". After losing the match...we all were sitting at our department lawn...silent!! Seemed like time has stopped!!

[Mr-khan]

Originally posted by offcutter

No he was 11th, if you're talking about 1997 ICC Final.

I m talking abt 1994 ICC trophy and he was number 9th not 11.