Speaking in English may be the toughest task for Bangladesh medium-fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman. He is not comfortable with English. But, Mustafizur has received good support from Indian cricketer Ricky Bhui who also speaks Bengali. Mustafizur has played well in IPL 9 so far bagging 16 wickets from 14 games for Featuring for Sunrisers Hyderabad. According to Bhui, Mustafizur uses sign language to converse with most of the players in SRH franchise.
“Mustafizur and I get along very well. Because he couldn’t speak English he couldn’t have many conversations with others in the team. He would talk to me and so there is good bonding between us. The role he would be required to play in the first 10 overs or the latter half, what he had to bowl to each batsman and which field he had to bowl to needed to be explained to him. During the strategic time-out, I would go and translate Warner’s instructions and the field set for him,” Rickey Bhui said.
“if he wishes to bowl a slower one, he rotates his wrist, and if it is a bouncer, he points to the head]. He says only two words – problem and no problem. Not just on the ground but everywhere – be it a press conference or sponsor event or when he speaks to the manager. If he says ‘problem’ he is totally clueless, if he says ‘no problem’ then he knows what to do,” he told.
Bhui said that Mustafizur always stays in his room. He has stopped going out for social events because of the fear of speaking in English. He always keeps on saying that he does not want to bat or speak English though he managed to pick up a few English words.
Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan added, “Mustafiz is a great bowler and has a good sense of cricket, and he understands what we tell him.”