The dawn of hope

9th March 2015, 5:40 PM. The Bangladesh cricket team just bowled England out and made it through to the Quarter Finals. This is the furthest our team has progressed into the One Day International World Cup Tournament since our first appearance in 1999. For my generation, it is truly a momentous occasion. Some of us have followed the Bangladesh cricket scene since the early-1990s, and have so far been witness to all its firsts. It is fitting that this monumental event happens with a victory over England, a team that not so long ago wanted to create a division system where they would one of the big teams while we are relegated to second tier. The victory also came with multiple other records, like the century by Mahmudullah, his partnership with Mushfiqur Rahim, Rubel Hossain's brilliant finish with the old ball, and last but not the least, the sheer grit of Mashrafe bin Mortaza.

In fact, it is safe to say that from this day hence, no discussion of Bangladesh cricket will be complete without mentioning our captain. Anyone who follows the cricket scene knows, and has often been rather frustrated with, Mashrafe's constant struggle with injuries. The fast bowler has often been out of the squad for big spells of time due to these injuries, and a lot of his promised potential has not been realised due to this. Even in this tournament, it is not an uncommon sight to see Mashrafe limp, grimace in pain, and yet pick up the ball and commence his run-up. Excruciating as the pain might be, his commitment to this team and our world cup mission is significantly greater.

Yesterday, he came to the post-match interview with a Bangladesh flag wrapped on as a bandanna. In my more than twenty years of watching this game, no captain has ever done that. Nor has any captain looked skyward to dedicate all of this to the martyrs of our liberation war, and the thousands today toiling towards making a better nation. It is fitting that a team of tigers is led by the most fierce tiger.

However, one must introduce the elephant in the room. Our batting order seems to have some issues going on towards the top. Cynical people have taken to saying that our batting order begins after the fall of the first two or three wickets. There is some truth to this statement, if you check how frequently our openers are booked for under 10 and then the others have to consolidate the innings. This can become a severe handicap in today's cricket games, where often a different of 10 runs is all it takes to win or lose a game. The athletes in question really do need to address these concerns. In particular, Tamim Iqbal is a brilliant athlete, but he has been visibly struggling to perform up to par. The team management and Tamim himself need to find out what would best enable him to recover from this bad patch and come back in a style that the team desperately needs him to do, now that we are in the knockout phase of the tournament.

The current Bangladesh team has two pillars that have been amazingly consistent and dependable in Mahmudullah and Mushfiq. Even yesterday, their partnership made all the difference. Like icing on the cake, Mahmudullah got his first ever hundred, which also happens to be the first ever by a Bangladeshi in the world cup. It gives me goosebumps to imagine that anyone who watched cricket yesterday for the first time witnessed such a plethora of firsts.

One thing I will emphasise here is this: once Mahmudullah got his hundred, we all started wishing for Mushfiq to also get one. That would also be a record for our team, but Mushfiq got out at 89. At one level this is disappointing. However, if you think about it, the only reason why Mushfiq got out is that he kept playing the big shots. He could easily have slowed down, but that would set us back twenty runs or so. Our little wonder put the team before himself, kept the shots coming, and got out. In one sense, no personal glory. In a whole different sense, glory beyond words.

Lastly, to our pride and glory: most days he either bats us to victory, or bowls the opponent into a corner. Some days he does both. And even on the days he does neither, just the way he fields puts the entire team on an adrenaline high. Some twenty years ago we qualified to play the world cup, and today one of the world's best all-rounders is our very own Shakib Al Hasan. Progress has been slow, but we are here now.

The Tigers are roaring. The world better sit up and take note.

Hammad Ali is a freelancer and an advisor for Bangladesh Math Olympiad Committee, Society for Popularisation of Science in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Open Source Network.