Archive (Wisden Asia Cricket)

The Bangla Bradman

He's a dashing conqueror and a soft-spoken gent, and he'd give anything to be in the side when his country win their first Test

09-Jan-2005
He's a dashing conqueror and a soft-spoken gent, and he'd give anything to be in the side when his country win their first Test. Rabeed Imam meets Bangladesh's captain.


Bashar is more of a relaxed introvert, than your stereotypical aggressor © AFP
He's not your stereotypical aggressor. The man who has just come out of the dressing room juggling an orange is more of a relaxed introvert, happy to let things around him take care of themselves. It is a few days before India's tour to Bangladesh, which has been threatened by militants. Habibul Bashar, like the rest of the country, wants to know whether the series is on or not: "What's the latest on India? Are they coming?" he asks as he gazes at the empty Bangabandhu National Stadium. "They should come. We need cricket here." The morning's practice is coming to an end and the Bangladesh captain finds himself a cosy corner in which to sit.
The lazy calm with which he chats doesn't give the remotest idea of how devastating he can be with a bat in hand, when his favourite pulls, hooks, and square-cuts flow interspersed with drives and on-side strokes. "He is someone who always bats at 60mph," says a long-time mate. That's no exaggeration: Bashar's strike-rate is tantalisingly close to that figure.
In 31 Tests, the 32-year-old has gone past the 2000-run mark, made three hundreds, and averages just about 35 - Bradmanesque in the context of Bangladesh's cricket, considering that the rest of the current crop of batsmen are struggling to get to the 20-runs-per-innings mark. Bashar is the player everyone wants to identify with in Bangladesh, and the aura of domination he carries at the crease is what his country wants its cricket team to emulate.
It has been far from a joyride for Bangladesh in Test cricket, and in their four years at the top level, things have not gone according to the lofty expectations of November 2000 when the Tigers played India in their inaugural Test in Dhaka. No one knows it more than Bashar, who made 71 and 30 in that match which India won by nine wickets. Four years on, Bangladesh are still without a win in Tests but Bashar believes there have been strides in the right direction.
"I'm not entirely happy with where we are at the moment. I knew it would be hard but I definitely thought we would be doing better. I think the problem for us was that a lot of our senior players, who had the experience, were coming towards the end of their careers when we got Test status, and suddenly there was a gap which younger players struggled to fill up. That pegged us back from reaching our desired level.
"If you look back at our performance over the last few months, I must say I'm not satisfied. We have played poorly in the Asia Cup, Champions Trophy, and against New Zealand at home. But there has been progress, no question about it. We have improved steadily since the tour of Australia last year, and apart from the home series against England, we have been very competitive against Pakistan and West Indies," says Bashar. He goes on to elaborate: "When we first entered the Test arena, we used to lose by big margins and went down fairly easily. But apart from the last New Zealand series, I think we have shown a lot of fight over the last year and a half. We have managed to make it difficult for the opposition. I'm sure if we carry on fighting in the same way, a win is not that far away."
Bashar got the captaincy in 2003, when the country's cricket authorities felt that it was time to give the job to someone who could lead by example. But although his batting continued to flourish, the team could not manage to improve its status.
"It is difficult to lead the 10th-ranked side," says Bashar. "When we go into a Test match, theoretically we have a very slim chance of winning. On the positive side, there is less expectation. But overall it's tough being the bottom team in every respect."
Tough job or not, Bashar is a proud man and extremely sensitive to suggestions that the Tigers should be relegated to a second tier of Test teams and restricted to playing lesser non-Test sides more often.
"I feel deeply frustrated when I hear such things. What I have learned in Test cricket is that if we do not play at this level, we will never improve. If we stay at a lower level, we will remain stuck there. The difference in standard between Test nations and associate members is huge. If we play them, we will never again be able to compete at this level; we will never learn anything. On the other hand, if we stay here, I'm absolutely sure that in a couple of years we will have a settled position in Test cricket.


'I want to average 40 at least when I end my career, and I want to see a win' © Getty Images
"Besides, when you play at the top level, sponsorship and patronisation come easy, which is very important for the development of cricket in Bangladesh. Cricket is huge here. Every youngster wants to play the game. If we are not playing Tests, they will lose interest as there will be no role models, which will mean the death of the sport. If we stick around, I'm sure that two years from now those who are suggesting these things will have to take back what they had said."
Bashar is under no illusions, though, that Bangladesh will have to produce results on the field. "The best reply to criticism for sportsmen is through performance. I have given my argument and critics will have theirs but the best way to stop all the negative campaigns is by doing well on the field.
"You see, we have a first-class competition in place. There are a number of one-day tournaments also. Our domestic structure is not bad but we have to make the best use of it. For our cricket to go forward, we need a strong A team, and here big teams like India and Pakistan can help. If they arrange more A tours and let us play in their domestic tournaments, it will give the fringe players invaluable experience and boost the reserve strength. At the moment we have to depend on the Under-19s for new talent, but it is a significant jump from youth level to Test cricket."
Captaincy has changed Bashar's shy demeanour of old, and the days when he struggled to look a person in the eye are long gone. It has also brought about a change in his overall outlook, which is much more team-oriented these days.
"Looking at my career, I feel a number of the 17 fifties I scored should have been hundreds. Now I am starting to convert a few but the important thing is that if I score big runs, it's good for the team. People say I am laidback, and sometimes when I get out it may seem that way, but that's my style. It hasn't changed too much in the last four years. If anything, I've become more responsible as it plays on the back of my mind when I go to bat that the team is depending on me."
A number of internationally reputed coaches have worked with Bangladesh over the years, and help and guidance have not been in short supply. But has there been the kind of impact Bashar may have hoped for?
"They all bring something extra, something new. Mohinder Amarnath was the first foreign coach I had worked with and he instilled the importance of fitness in us. Eddie Barlow changed the whole thinking and planning in Bangladesh's cricket, while Dav Whatmore has worked wonders on the mental as well as the technical aspects. It is important to take what the foreign coaches are offering, but all the players do not have the same understanding capacity."
Bashar's best moments for Bangladesh came in the West Indies in 2004. "Tino Best came up to me at the end of the series and said `I respect you, maan,' and I told him `I enjoyed playing with you, Tino'. That was fun," grins Bashar, who averaged nearly 60 in the two Tests and made a glorious run-a-ball hundred in St Lucia, dispatching the red-hot Best to all parts of the ground.
"That was my best innings because I played exactly as I wanted to," Bashar recalls. "The most memorable moment was when I declared the innings in St Lucia for the first time in our history. It was also a privilege to watch the hundreds of [Mohammad] Rafique and [Khaled] Mashud in that Test."
Test cricket has been a story of personal triumphs for Bashar but his world will not be complete without two things. "I want to average 40 at least when I end my career, and I want to see a win. It might come under my captaincy but I don't care. I just want to be in the team when it happens."
So when does he see the second part of the dream coming true? "Within one year," he says, before he utters the formula: "If we perform to our potential and play five days of Test cricket with the same intensity and purpose, then we have what it takes to get a result, and I know it will happen sooner rather than later."
Rabeed Imam is a writer with the Daily Star in Bangladesh.
This article first appeared in the January 2005 issue of Wisden Asia Cricket. Click here for further details.