Happy 31st Birthday Shakib al Hasan

Mar 24, 2018 at 6:43 PM

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Happy 31st Birthday Shakib al Hasan

A couple of years back, I came across this Bangladeshi television commercial on Youtube that had a catchy punchline “Bangladesher Jaan, Bangladesher Praan, Shakib Al Hasan” and I couldn’t agree more. I have no doubts in my mind that Bangladesh will produce many cricketers who in the future will emulate Shakib’s heroics and may even go beyond but Shakib’s contribution to Bangladesh cricket will always remain incomparable. He did it for Bangladesh what Kapil Dev did for India or Arjuna Ranatunga did for Sri Lanka. Many bettered them statistically but the belief they brought in to the team is beyond numbers, the belief that they can take on the best in the world, the belief that they can beat the best in the world.

Shakib Al Hasan (born 24 March 1987) is from Magura, Khulna, Bangladesh. He started playing cricket at an early age in Magura but his true talent found wings and was honed only after he joined the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), the national sports institute in Bangladesh. It is a government funded autonomous residential institution and is located at Savar, about 28 km north-west of the capital, Dhaka and has also produced other Bangladeshi star cricketers like Mushfiqur Rahim, Abdur Razzak and Soumya Sarkar to name a few. Shakib owes a lot of his success to BKSP and has mentioned many times in the past that he truly believes that he would not have come this far had he come directly from Magura and it were his days at the BKSP that have made him what he is today. In his International career for Bangladesh spanning more than a decade now, Shakib has shown professionalism and temperament like none before and has set a benchmark of sorts. He made his International debut for Bangladesh in August 2006 as a 19 year old against Zimbabwe in an One Day International held at the Harare Sports Club. He played a crucial part in that match with both the bat and the ball. He scored 30 runs and also took a wicket in what resulted in a Bangladeshi win. Shakib has not looked back ever since and has consistently performed in all the 3 formats of the game and has established himself as an all-rounder not just in Bangladesh, but globally. Shakib became the first cricketer in the world in 2015 to be ranked the No.1 all-rounder by ICC in its Player Rankings in all three formats of the game (Test, Twenty20 and One Day Internationals). With 10,074 International runs and 498 wickets in just over a decade of International cricket, Shakib is already considered as one of the greats to have ever played the gentleman’s game. Apart from his fearless cricket in International cricket, Shakib has plied his trade in domestic leagues across the world having played in leagues like the Indian Premier League, CPL and PSL to name a few. This has done a world of good not just to him but to Bnagladesh Cricket. According to Shakib’s teammate and Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal, Shakib, having worked with the best of coaches, analysts and support staffs during the leagues shares most of his experience which has helped the Bangladeshi  team to grow as well. In the truest terms, Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh’s first cricketing superstar.

Shakib has had his share of controversies as well. In 2014, Shakib al Hasan threatened the newly appointed national head coach Chandika Hathurusingha that he will quit international cricket if forced to cut short his Caribbean Premier League (CPL) commitments. This led to furore and he was handed a ban from International cricket for six months. BCB president Nazmul Hasan had called it a severe attitude problem on Shakib’s part. Recently, during the Nidahas Trophy held in Sri Lanka, Shakib and members of the Bangladesh team got involved in a heated argument with the on-field umpires and members of the Sri Lankan team with Shakib considering a walkout.  This event was hugely criticized by cricket pundits across the globe.

Whatever said and done, Shakib al Hasan is the flag bearer of Bangladesh Cricket and their first global superstar. He is the idol to the average Bangladeshi.  He has taught them to dream, to dream high.  His statistics speak for himself, he will be remembered as a legend and at 31, he has  years of cricket left in him and can only get better from here. Wishing Shakib al Hasan a very happy 31st birthday.

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