Bangladesh are not minnows anymore, but need to perform abroad: Geoffrey Boycott

Former English captain Geoffrey Boycott in a recent interview stated that Bangladesh haven’t done enough to send waves through to the cricketing world as their recent wins have come on home conditions. Boycott reckons Bangladesh, who had never beaten India in a series earlier and currently lead 2-0, need to win matches abroad, especially Tests against teams like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England.
Boycott said, “They’re not quite minnows anymore, they’ve had one or two good performances but I think we are getting carried away a little bit,”

“Beating India occasionally, and Pakistan or Sri Lanka, doesn’t send waves through the cricket world. Sorry, I don’t want to put a damper on your excitement for Bangladesh but nearly all Bangladesh’s good performances are at home. That doesn’t make the world of cricket sit up until you go to Australia or South Africa or New Zealand, and beat them in their countries…that will be a huge step and we will all take notice.”
Boycott stressed on the point that one big advantage that Bangladesh have got is the ICC funding that they have been receiving that other teams did not when they started out, and the television revenues they earn from the broadcasters. The Bangladesh Cricket Board sold its worldwide media rights to Gazi TV last year for US $20.02 million for a period of six years, and recently sold the team sponsorship rights to Top of Mind, a media planning company, for over $385,000.
“Cricket lovers want Bangladesh to succeed, no doubt about that, but you’ve got to accept that lots and lots of ICC money has been poured into Bangladesh cricket for many years now,” Boycott said. “And quite honestly, we, the cricketing nations of the world, need to see more from them. Bangladesh have a huge cricket-mad population and I realise it takes time to be able to match the big countries. It’s always happened like that – it took time for West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan after partition, even India were not able to match England or Australia on equal terms in the early days. Now they are.
“But none of these countries received a financial help or clout that Bangladesh have had over the years. They’ve had loads of money. These countries had to make a lot on their own, there wasn’t money around, there wasn’t television revenue for ICC, or whoever run world cricket, to pour in to India, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies when they were in their infancy.

“And Sri Lanka, let me tell you. I’ve forgotten them but I shouldn’t because they’ve been wonderful…they’ve won a World Cup. I want them (Bangladesh) to enjoy their success but I don’t think you need to get carried away, you need to keep it in perspective because more is required. An occasional one-day is lovely but we need more.”

5 Things You Need To Know About Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman, the Bangladeshi left arm medium fast bowler rose into eminence at the international level for two reasons, One he took a fifer on debut against India and brought about a famous victory for his side and for cannoning into MS Dhoni when Dhoni was running between the wickets.

1.Early life and career: Mustafizur Rahman was born on September 6, Satkhira, Kulna Bangladesh. He is 19 years old. Mustafizur has played for Bangladesh, Abahani Limited, Bangladesh Under-19s, Khulna Division, South Zone (Bangladesh). His jersey number is 90. He is a left handed batsman and a left arm medium pace.

2. Early cricket career: Mustafizur hasn’t played much of first class cricket and has a decent record in the 10 matches he has played. He has picked up 28 wickets with the best bowling figures of 6 for 33. The Board had faith in his talent and he made his international debut on April 2015 in a T20 match against Pakistan.

3. His T20 debut: Mustafizur Rahman made his T20 debut against Pakistan in April 2015. He took the wickets of two big fishes, the ever dangerous Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Hafeez. His two wickets helped Bangladesh restrict Pakistan to 141. Eventually Bangladesh vanquished Pakistan by 7 wickets with 22 balls to spare.

4. His idol – the banned Pakistani pacer Mohammed Amir: Mustafizur Rahman said that his idol was the banned Pakistani pacer Mohammed Amir. “He is my idol for his bowling qualities. His spot fixing allegations don’t bother me”. While it is his personal choice to idolize whoever he wants to not many people seem to be too pleased with his statement.

5. His ODI debut: Mustafizur Rahman took a fifer on his ODI debut that helped his side prevail over India by 79 runs. He picked up the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Rahane, Raina, Jadeja and Ashwin. Due to his brilliant bowling performance, Bangladesh beat India by a huge margin of 79 runs.

মুস্তাফিজের প্রশংসায়: সৌরভ গাঙ্গুলী

মুস্তাফিজ জেনো ভারতের এক ভীতির  নাম। গোটা বিশ্বেই যেন মজে আছেন মুস্তাফিজুর রহমানে। আর ক্যারিয়ারের প্রথম দুই ওয়ানডেতে প্রথম বোলার হিসেবে ১১ টি উইকেট পাওয়ার কীর্তি গড়া মুস্তাফিজে এবার মুগ্ধতা প্রকাশ করলেন সাবেক ভারতীয় অধিনায়ক সৌরভ গাঙ্গুলি।

ওয়ানডে ক্রিকেটে বিশ্ব রেকর্ড গড়েছেন ১৯ বছর বয়সী তরুণ বাঁহাতি পেসার মুস্তাফিজুর রহমান। তাকে নিয়ে সৌরভ বলেন, ‘মুস্তাফিজ তো অসাধারণ বোলিং করেছে। একটা ছেল ২০ ওভার বল করে ১১ উইকেট নিচ্ছে – ভাবাই যাই না!’
শুধু মুস্তাফিজই নয়, সৌরভের কণ্ঠে শোনা গেল গোটা বাংলাদেশি পেস আক্রমণের প্রশংসা, ‘বাংলাদেশ অবিশ্বাস্য পারফর্ম করেছে। ওরা আমাকে একেবারে চমকে দিয়েছে। বিশেষকরে বাংলাদেশর পেস বোলাররা। বাংলাদেশ থেকে ভারত অনেক ভাল দল। তাদেরকে দুই ম্যাচে ২২৮ ও ২০০ রানে শেষ করে দেয়া কিন্তু সোজা কথা নয়।’

Top 10 Batsmen with Most Fours in a test innings

Top 10 Batsmen with Most Fours in a test innings: Test cricket is all about hanging on – it tests your patience and resilience. You just cannot go out there and start attempting sixes from the very first ball for obvious reasons. You have 5 days for the game and you won’t want to risk your energy and more importantly, your wicket. You leave the good balls, take your time to read the conditions and settle down and talk more in singles and doubles. There have been exceptions to this format as well – players like Virender Sehwag always showed more interest towards making the ball sail over the boundary and quite well did so; but in most of the cases it’s the fours which keep your scoreboard ticking. A six requires timing and power, a four requires even greater things – hand-eye coordination, ability to read the field, finding the gap and executing the correct way. We present to you a list of 10 cricketers with most number of fours in a test innings.


10. Mahela Jayawardene 43:

He is considered as one of the finest test-cricketers the world has ever produced. With his class, patience and strong technique, Mahela Jayawardene would stay hours and hours on the pitch altogether.

In July, 2006, Sri Lanka was playing their first match of the test-series against England when Jayawardene went on to share a world record partnership of 642 runs alongside Kumar Sangakkara. He scored 374 in that innings – the highest score by a Sri Lankan bats
man. He hit 43 fours in that knock.

9. Brian Charles Lara 43:
He held the record for the highest score in a test innings for about 10 years before Matthew Hayden surpassed his score of 375 by hitting 380 in Oct, 2003. But it didn’t take long for Lara to again beat that. Six months after Hayden’s knock, in the April of 2004, this West Indian went on to score 400* against England. He smashed 43 ground-boundaries in this innings. Brian Lara was appointed honorary member of the Order of Australia on 27 November 2009.^[18] On 14 September 2012 he was inducted to the ICC's Hall of Fame at the awards ceremony held in Colombo, Sri Lanka as a 2012–13 season inductee along with Australians Glenn McGrath and former England women all-rounder Enid Bakewell. In 2013, Lara received Honorary Life Membership of the MCC becoming the 31st West Indian to receive the honor.

8. Graham Gooch 43:

The great Graham Gooch is regarded as one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation. He had a long cricketing career spanning over 27 years in which he played 118 matches and scored over 8900 runs. This English cricketer’s innings of 333 against India at the Lord’s in July, 1990 saw him hitting 43 fours along-with 3 sixes.

7. Graeme Pollock 43:

Graeme had a short but a very fruitful career. In the 23 test matches Graeme played, he scored 2256 runs and averaged more than 60! This Englishman’s innings of 274 against Australia in 1970, which is also his highest score in Tests – comprised of 43 ground shots which reached to the fence.

6. Sir Don Bradman 43:

He is widely acknowledged as the greatest test batsman of all times and his career batting average of 99.94 is a testimony of his success as a sportsman. Sir Don is one of the few cricketers who have been awarded with a Knighthood. This Australian’s magical innings of 304 came against England in 1934, and he went on to hit 43 fours in that knock.

5. VVS Laxman 44:

Fans dearly expand his initials to Very Very Special. Why? Because he was indeed special! In the early 2000s, whenever India played against Australia, the fans could always rely upon Laxman for playing a good knock, and he did so, most of the times. The innings we talk about here is the 281 he hit in 2001. The venue was Eden Gardens, Kolkata. VVS hit 44 fours in his innings and boy, what a blistering knock it was! Not only did it change the course of the match, but to an extent directed the future of Indian cricket for the coming few years.

4. Brian Charles Lara 45:

As mentioned earlier, for 10 years Lara’s path-breaking innings of 375 held the record of being the highest score by a batsman in Test cricket. This was the innings in which he hit 45 fours. The opposition was England and the calendar showed 1994. No English bowler could deliver a ball that had the better of Lara until he scored the record 375 runs in 766 balls.

3. Sir Don Bradman 46:

So here is Sir Don Bradman again, for the second time in the list. His innings of 334 against England in 1930 included 46 fours, which is the 3rd highest number of boundaries in any innings. This knock came in 1930, the nascent years of professional, international cricket.

2. Virender Sehwag 47:

Sehwag is one of the most prolific batsmen India has ever produced. Be it an ODI, a T20 or a Test, he always plays the same way! He creates havoc among the opposition bowlers whenever he is at his best. When Sehwag is in full flow, even a test starts to look like a limited-over game. Moreover, he is the only Indian batsman to have touched the 300-mark in tests – and that too not only once, but twice. He was close to his 3rd triple-hundred once as well, but got out on 293.

But the innings we are talking about here is the 254 he made against Pakistan in 2006 which included 47 fours. It’s a surprise he hit only one six in his entire innings.

                                                        

 1. John Edrich 52:

Well I know most of you haven’t even heard his name before. Edrich was an English cricketer and he made this record back in 1965. The record is safely standing there since long, untouched. The 52 fours that Edrich hit in his innings of 310* against New Zealand is the highest number of fours by any batsman in an innings of Test cricket.