The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Pride of the Tigers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Pride of the Tigers

By N.U. Abilash

CHENNAI, DEC. 17. When 27-year-old Bangladesh all-rounder Naimur Rahman walked out to the centre of the ground named after the Father of his nation, `Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, for the toss in Bangladesh's inaugural Test match on November 10, 2000, he was joined by his Indian counterpart Sourav Ganguly. The Bangladeshi press not only celebrated its country's debut in Test cricket with fanfare but also recorded the occasion as "two Bengali captains at a toss for the first time in international cricket."

If November 10 was the crystallisation of the cultural aspirations of Bangladeshis, March 7 is when their leader gave the call for them to mobilise as a fighting unit for the realisation of their political aspirations.

It was on that day in 1971 that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman asked "Bengalis to turn every home into a fortress and fight the enemy with whatever they could lay their hands on."

Six days before Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's inspirational speech, his supporters had marched to the Dacca cricket stadium to interrupt the final day of a four-day match between a full Pakistan team led by Intikhab Alam and a Commonwealth team led by Mickey Stewart. The match featured the only Bengali ever to have been selected for Pakistan, opener Roquibul Hassan.

Hassan, who was the captain of Bangladesh in the second edition of the Asia Cup in 1986, was deprived of international cricket because of his country's freedom from Pakistan on December 16, 1971. He was on the verge of being selected to represent Pakistan, led by Intikhab Alam, in a Test match in 1969 when he was the twelfth man in the third and final Test against New Zealand in Dhaka.

Freedom fight

Far from crying over his international career being cut short by political events, Hassan, in 1971, submerged himself in his country's freedom fight and he was called by the Bangladesh government in exile to form a cricket team to give popularity to their political cause. For five years, Hassan could not test his skills against international opposition, before he played against the England team, then touring India under the captaincy of Tony Greig, in Rajshahi in December 1976 before a packed house.

Many historians have classified Niaz Ahmed as the only East Pakistani to represent Pakistan before 1971. Ahmed, a fast medium bowler, made his debut against England in the 1967 summer in the second Test at Trent Bridge.

Many in Bangladesh, including Roquibul Hassan, dismiss this as the `Pakistani' perspective. According to them, Niaz Ahmed was Urdu-speaking though he had represented East Pakistan for many seasons. Even Nasim-ul-Ghani, the handsome left-arm spinner who played 29 Tests for Pakistan between 1957 and 1972, had played for East Pakistan in the domestic competition for a couple of seasons, they point out.

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