The “naughty or nice list” of the year 2010- Part I
One more year is behind us. The last day of 2010 is here and it is time to go take that annual parade down memory lane.
It is the naughty or nice list, of the year of the tiger, as stated by the Chinese calendar. Cricket had its share of Tigers and even a mouse, literally. It has been an eventful year. The cricket year had been full of controversies; even WikiLeaks could
not escape the power of sham in cricket. So this list will guide the humble cricket fans to know whether their favourites have been naughty or nice and how will they fare next year.
The nice and naughty Bangladesh
The year 2010 was not the greatest year, statistically, for Bangladesh. It was even less rewarding for the Tigers camp than the year 2009. Yet the only highlight for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 was how the relatively young team went on to win the One Day series against New
Zealand. The team was without their most experienced players Tamim Iqbal and regular captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mashrafe-Mortaza-c1917. Still the team managed to thwart the Kiwis with a 4-0 whitewash. They played the best cricket ever, in a long time. Where the year was stemmed by
a captaincy tug of war leading to an impulsive retirement and some madness on the domestic front, an individual rose up to the challenge and everything paled in front of him.
Shakib Al Hasan was the main Tiger. He led the side in the absence of Mortaza, even though he has been insisting that he is not ready for the role. Yet the Bangladesh Cricket Board has immense confidence in his abilities. He also became the first Bangladeshi
to play county cricket. He evolved into the most important all-rounder ever, picking up the team when needed the most. He took four wickets in the first ODI against the Kiwis and added a fifty. He took calculated decisions when he rotated the spinners well
in the third ODI, smashed a century along with three wickets in the fourth ODI and kept the players calm in the last match.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tamim-Iqbal-c2640 was another individual who contributed to cricket highlight’s this year. The ferocious left-hander at the tender age of 21 got busy in writing his name on the Lord’s honour’s board, thanks to his blazing century against England earlier this year.
He is back in the squad and is surely a dark horse for Bangladesh’s bid for the World Cup. Mortaza had a bad year, coupled with injuries and a disagreement with the selectors over his fitness. His future looks bleak as he has been ruled out of the World Cup
due to another injury.
His 12 months of 2010 were definitely depressing but the selectors could not stop to make him the captain even though he has been absent from most of the series. Raqib Al http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hasan-c61990 was another player who took a rash decision and quit from international cricket
after he was fuming over the selectors decision to omit him from the preliminary squad of the World Twenty20.
The bottom line is that Bangladesh had its share of high points and low points in the year 2010. Bangladesh will be co-hosting next year’s World Cup and the Tigers have quite an eventful year ahead them. The national team can work towards being more consistent
and the year 2011 will surely rake them more “nice” highlights.
(Continued in Part II)
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