'We did our best today'

Bangladesh signed off their memorable home series against the visiting West Indies with an 18-run defeat in the lone T20 International at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur last night. The Tigers might have lost their last match but undoubtedly the fans got their money's worth after the way Mushfiqur Rahim's men fought against the world champions in the shortest format of the game.

There was no shortage of entertainment and excitement in the match for the capacity crowd, who braved the chilly weather to encourage their beloved team, as the home team continued their impressive form even in defeat. Dashing opener Tamim Iqbal, who entertained the crowd the most after Marlon Samuels's explosive knock, believed that his side and their fans should in no way be disappointed with the outcome of the last match of the series, in which the Caribbean side were the favourites but the Tigers also showed their character.

"I think we did our best in the match and Bangladesh played their best match. I believe that we can in no way be disappointed with the result and even the fans should not be disappointed with the result," said the Chittagonian, who spoke highly of Bangladesh's overall performance in the series during the post-match press conference.

Pacer Rubel Hossain conceded 29 runs in the last over as Samuels mesmerised with four sixes and one boundary to reprise the heroics of his match-winning knock in the final of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. The common feeling was that this fateful over ultimately made the difference as Bangladesh fell 18 runs short of the formidable target of 198. But Tamim was not ready to single out any player for the defeat, pointing out that as a team they conceded 10 to 15 runs more.

"It would not be wise to identify Rubel as the reason for the defeat because as we all know the world's best bowlers also meet this fate. Instead I think that we gave 10-15 runs more as a team. Just think of the matter in another way -- what would have happened if Rubel didn't provide the two early breakthroughs. I think we should give Rubel confidence because he is still young and an asset for our team," explained Tamim, who was also not disappointed for missing the hundred as the team comes first for him.

The opener, who was unbeaten on a 61-ball 88, was also not ready to blame his skipper and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim who wasted three chances behind the stumps, including two against Samuels, who made the difference by scoring a sensible yet explosive unbeaten 85 that came from 43 deliveries with the help of three fours and nine huge sixes.

Bangladesh played their last series of the year and Tamim said that it was the best year he has seen in his six years with the Bangladesh side.

"Without any doubt this was the best year because we probably won 5 to 6 matches out of nine and just consider our success in the Asia Cup and in the last series. I firmly believe that it's [the West Indies tour] one of the best series we have played," observed Tamim.

"Shakib Al Hasan's absence was a big blow in the one-day series and I also failed to perform in the ODIs but still we won the series against a team, which in my opinion is the most dangerous side in world cricket now. I think we played as a unit and the self-belief was the key behind the success," he added.

Despite the impressive performance, the left-hander felt that there were still a lot of areas where they should improve to become a good team in world cricket.

Chris Gayle was the name before the series who scared the Tigers and the fans most but the left-hander completely flopped in the series against Bangladesh. Tamim had an interesting reply to end the press conference when asked about Gayle's failure. "What I learnt from watching Gayle in the series was that pressure can make an honest man of anyone."

The dream begins here

Mohammad Rubel's life revolved around nothing but playing football and working as a ball-boy since he dropped out of school a year ago because his family could not bear his educational expenses anymore. But the 13-year old boy from Narayanganj can dream again of a good future as he has made the cut as one of the 37 footballers selected for the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Academy in Sylhet. Now he can concentrate on his football as well as studies, which will be taken care of by the academy.

Rubel is one of the 17 U-14 level footballers who have been chosen, apart from 20 members of the BFF U-14 squad that recently toured Japan for the BFF Academy U-14 squad.

“Since my father's death seven years ago, the family has been run by my elder brother who works at a metal workshop, and I had to leave school a year ago when I was in class four,” said Rubel. “But I will get another chance to study after being selected for the BFF Academy. However, I am especially happy because I will get the chance to play football which I love most.”

Many of the footballers who have been selected are from needy families like Rubel, but there are some from well-off ones, like Suruz Rahman, who have been allowed by their families to join the academy to pursue their love for the game.

Suruz's mother, a housewife from Jhikorgacha of Jessore, was delighted that his son qualified for the academy.

“We have allowed him to play football because he loves the game. He will now stay away from us but we must bear this pain. I will be happy if he becomes a good footballer,” said Suruz's mother Afroza who was present at the Bangabandhu National Stadium when the selection was made.

Being selected for the academy is just the culmination of small personal dreams and just reward for budding booters like Rubel and Suruz. But there is a bigger dream here at work, one which took its root when the talent hunt programme kicked off three months ago involving some 50,000 young booters from across the country, and

will only be realised when the BFF Academy turns these hopefuls into footballing stars who will lead the country's football to a whole new height.

A Simple Man

The Tigers' silent performer Mahmudullah Riyad, who already won the hearts of millions of cricket lovers for his elegant style of batting, was happy with his consistent performance with the bat as well as effective contribution with the ball in Bangladesh's home series against the West Indies, and was delighted with the way his team won the one-day series. The soft-spoken cricketer from Mymensingh hogged the spotlight after the completion of the Test and one-day series but to the stylish batsman the team always comes first. The all-rounder spoke of his philosophy and expectations during a freewheeling conversation with reporters at the poolside of the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel the day after Bangladesh's memorable series victory on Saturday. The following is an excerpt from the encounter.

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Question (Q): You were promoted to number five in the last match and the plan seemed to have worked fine.

Answer (A): Yeah, the promotion worked. However, it wasn't a different role at all. I batted at number five before. On the match day Mushfiqur (Rahim) asked me to bat at five, Nasir (Hossain) at 6 and Shohag at 7. It was a plan.

Q: Bangladesh was reeling at 30 for 3.What was going through your mind when you came to bat?

A: Honestly speaking I didn't think about anything. I just went there to bat in my natural way. I was confident. I tried hitting the bad balls and they went for boundaries, so I grew in confidence. We had small targets and at first it was about crossing the 100 mark and then the 150. We just wanted to get as close to the total as possible.

Q: The ball that you were bowled by, was the bounce improper?

M: That ball stayed a little low. I initially thought of playing a slog sweep and then I thought that (Sunil) Narine is their strike bowler, let's play a safe shot. I was in two minds and that cost me my wicket.

Q: Before the series there was talk about your lack of form. Were you worried?

A: I thank God that I found form. I wasn't thinking about my form or the situation before the series. My last few matches weren't that great. Since I normally bat at number 7, I can't always make big scores. I have mostly had the contributor's role, something that not many people notice.

Q: Did your good form in the Test match give you the confidence to excel in the ODIs?

A: I performed well in the first innings of the first Test match and I think that gave me a huge boost.

Q: Good players perform under pressure and that's what you did. How does it feel?

A: I am a very simple man. I see cricket through very simple steps, and the simple fact is that if you don't perform you don't deserve to be in the team. Yes the vice-captain tag is an additional duty but you've still got to perform. There was a little pressure on me before this series but I received support from my captain and teammates.

Q: Do you consider your performance in this series to be the best in your career?

A: Yes, I think this was one of the rare series where I performed well both in the one-dayers and the Test matches.

Q: You have the distinct record of scoring the maximum runs in world cricket while batting at number 7 since your debut. Do you want to continue batting at this position?

A: I wasn't aware of that record firstly (smiling). And well, it's the team's decision. This series is special because we have been playing well right from the beginning throughout the month and so it feels really good to have won the series.

Q: How has the presence of Saqlain Mushtaq in the team helped the spinners and the dressing room as a whole?

A: He is a great guy, not only does he support the bowlers, but he also provides support on a mental level. He talks to all of us individually which helps a lot. He has gone through a lot in international cricket and it helped quite a bit.

Q: How has the vice-captaincy role been so far?

A: I have always tried to assist the captain. Mushfiq is an intelligent boy. We talk to each other a lot, along with the other senior players. Because Shakib wasn't there in this series, I felt that I had to take a little more responsibility and stand up for the team. Shakib is the best player in the team and his absence was obviously a negative.

Q: Lastly, how did the Bangladeshi team catch up to the 'Gangnam Style'?

A: The song is obviously very catchy and popular, especially the way the West Indies team danced after winning the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. We used to dance to it in the dressing room just for fun. So we decided that if we win the series we'd dance to it together on the field.

Eng close to victory

A spineless India were on the verge of a second successive humiliating defeat in their own backyard against England who were within sniffing distance of an emphatic victory in the third cricket Test here on Saturday.

After conceding a mammoth 207-run lead, India's famed batsmen put up a pathetic display but Ravi Ashwin (83 batting) and the tail-enders delayed the inevitable as the hosts reached 239 for nine at close on the penultimate day.

Ashwin, who flopped as a bowler, provided some resistance as the last two wickets added 80 runs after being at a precarious 159 for eight at one stage, forcing the game to stretch into the fifth day with India having a slender lead of 32.

With one full day left, England were on course for a huge win and take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series.

India got off to a good start with Virender Sehwag (49) and Gautam Gambhir (40) putting on 86 runs but the innings completely came apart after the lunch break with wickets falling with embarrassing ease on an Eden Gardens track, which gave some assistance to the bowlers.

While the Indian bowlers looked completely ineffective, the English bowlers exploited the conditions far better and raise hopes of their first series win on Indian soil in 28 years.

After the humiliating 10-wicket defeat in Mumbai, the hosts once again seemed clueless in their own den with neither batting nor bowling click-ing against the English side.

Well bowled Tigers

If anyone was hibernating for the past week and a half and just woke up yesterday night, they might be excused for thinking that the Bangladesh cricket team somehow cheated Armageddon. Before the five-ODI series against the West Indies started, all opinion surrounding the series pointed to a batting domination by the West Indies. It was only natural to think that about the tourists, because they had won the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka as recently as October, and the world was in thrall of their big-hitting prowess. 300-plus totals, utter domination of Bangladesh's bowlers was on the cards.

But at the end of West Indies' innings in the fifth ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, West Indies had scored only 217 all out. This followed scores of 199, 132, 228 for six and 211 for nine in the first four ODIs -- far removed from pre-series forecasts. But when the dust settles on the series, people will look back on this and the Asia Cup in March as two series where the Tigers became a team in the true meaning of the word, and that is most apparent in the bowling. In the Asia Cup the Tigers regularly restrained the strong batting line-ups of Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan for below-par totals.

This series is merely a continuation of that, and more heartening because the team overcame two major hurdles -- the absence of their talismanic allrounder Shakib Al Hasan (the man of the tournament in the Asia Cup) and the new ODI regulations dictating that only four fielders could be outside the inner circle at any time. The latter was thought to be especially disadvantageous to the Bangladesh spinners, but discipline and mental steel brought them through with flying colours.

What began in Khulna with the dismissal of West Indies for 199 became a recurrent trend in the series, even in the two matches that Bangladesh lost. To attribute their bowling success to spinning pitches would be to miss the bigger picture and also do a grave disservice to Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the Tigers' lion-hearted fast bowler whose contributions in the series is much greater than his numbers suggest.

Near the start of the series, both Bangladesh's interim coach Shane Jurgensen and Mashrafe himself talked about the importance of starting well. In that regard thoughts were certainly translated into action as the opposition's most feared batsman, opener Chris Gayle, was made to endure a torrid series, scoring just 72 runs at an average of 14.4 -- his third-worst returns in a five-ODI series. Mashrafe got the big Jamaican three out of the four times he bowled at him. It was not one-way traffic in any of the innings -- Gayle had gotten after Mashrafe each time, but the Narail express struck back each time with the big wicket.

The secret, in opposition captain Darren Sammy's words after the second ODI in Khulna, was that Bangladesh's bowlers were not put off their lines by an assault. Gayle was tied up outside the off stump, tried to break free and even succeeded momentarily, but the balls he was trying to hit were good ones bowled to fields set for that mode of attack. Mashrafe did the job in the first four matches, and it is good news for Bangladesh that when he missed out with injury yesterday Shafiul Islam continued the good work, getting Gayle after tying him down in similar fashion.

Bangladesh's bowling success was down to them getting good starts with the ball in every match. The spinners were the difference as each innings wore on. Shohag Gazi has been a revelation on this tour, and opened the bowling effectively in all matches except the first. The drying up of runs at the start softened the batting up for Bangladesh's spin arsenal. It worked every time -- even when Marlon Samuels scored a century in the third game and Pollard hit 85 yesterday, the rest of the batsmen were tied up in knots by the spinners.

This series showed that Bangladesh's true strength lies in their bowling, and the source of that strength is the team ethic that found clear expression in the Asia Cup. It is that source which will give supporters most heart, because after a long wait the team are no longer dependent on individuals.

'This is for the martyrs'

For a moment it seemed like the game would never end.  The nerves were jittery even when Bangladesh needed just four runs to win in the 43rd over with four wickets in hand. That was the precise moment when Shohag Gazi, who almost carried the hosts home with his aggressive batting, was caught behind. The scenario only worsened when Abdur Razzak was trapped in front by Kemar Roach in the very same over.

The inevitable question was asked by many towards the end of the game -- can Bangladesh actually lose it from here? Those last few minutes seemed like hours for thousands of fans sitting at the edge of their seats at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday. Even Nasir Hossain's cut-shot towards the boundary, which eventually didn't reach the fence but brought the entire Bangladesh team on to the pitch, didn't end the game.

The moment of truth though, arrived off the very next ball, when another cut over cover finally relieved the hosts of their misery. As captain Mushfiqur Rahim put it, at the end of the game, it was 'more than just a mere series victory'.

"Before this series, when we whitewashed them at home, that was a weak team. The 4-0 win against New Zealand wasn't against their best possible team. But this West Indian team are the T20 world champions. And we weren't playing with a full-strength team either, so it just feels amazing," said Mushfiqur.

"In the last two matches our bowling was good but we couldn't field and bat well. Our plan today was to play as a team and give our heart and soul in all three departments, and I am really happy that everything went according to plan," explained an excited Mushfiqur.

Bangladesh's chase yesterday evening was dominated by partnerships. The first one was between Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah Riyad, who was promoted up the order. The fall of the senior pair brought to the wicket young Mominul Haque and Nasir Hossain, who shared another half-century stand.

"We never thought that the match would slip out of our hands. Even after [Mahmudullah] Riyad bhai got out, I had the belief that we could win. After I got out, Mominul and Nasir played very well. I think they played better than us because they were under more pressure. The way Shohag [Gazi] scored those 19 runs also contributed," said Mushfiqur.

The 91-run stand for the fourth wicket with Riyad in particular rescued the hosts as they were struggling at 30 for 3 in the initial stages. "On the field and off the field we [Riyad and Mushfiqur] spend a lot of time together, so we are lucky that as seniors we could provide the partnership. The responsibility was a lot more because Shakib [Al Hasan] wasn't there and Tamim [Iqbal] couldn't perform the way we wanted to," said the captain.

The captain also had good words for Shafiul Islam, who picked up three wickets and bowled four maidens, and Mominul whose two wickets in two overs applied the brakes on the visitors' run-flow. He also batted sensibly for his 25 and provided Nasir ample support with the bat.

"The best thing about him is his fighting character. I just told him to stick to the plan and not to worry about the outcome. His wicket of Pollard was very crucial -- if we didn't take that they would have scored a 250-plus total," claimed Mushfiqur. "As for Shafiul, I think 70 to 80 per cent credit for our victory should go to him. To come and play against such aggressive players in the finals was a brilliant task," added Mushfiqur.

Declared as the man of the series for his 204 runs and the way he marshalled his troops on the field, Mushfiqur stated that he was successful only because of his team. The press conference ended in a similarly dramatic fashion as the game itself, as an emotional Mushfiqur dedicated Bangladesh's best ever win in the month of victory to the martyrs of the country's Liberation War. "It's the month of our country's victory, and although we haven't done a fraction of what they did [martyrs] for our country, we want to dedicate this win to them."

Brendon named new Kiwi captain

Ousted New Zealand cricket captain Ross Taylor said Friday he was distressed at being axed in favour of Brendon McCullum and needed a break from the game after a "very challenging" time.

After a week of intense speculation about Taylor's future, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) confirmed the 28-year-old batsman had been dumped as skipper and would sit out the upcoming tour of South Africa.

"It was felt that the workload for a young captain was a lot," NZC chief executive David White told reporters, adding that Taylor rejected an offer to remain Test captain while handing limited overs duties to McCullum.

Despite presiding over a string of poor results, Taylor remains New Zealand's best batsman, averaging 43.45, and his absence from the Test squad for South Africa further weakens a side missing injured spinner Dan Vettori.

Taylor said coach Mike Hesson told him he was no longer wanted as captain before last month's two-Test series in Sri Lanka, where the Black Caps fought back for a creditable 1-1 draw after losing heavily in the first Test.

"Obviously, the news and the timing was distressing," he said in a statement. "It has been a very challenging and pressured time and I don't believe I can give 100 percent to the game at this time."

Taylor, who White said could play in a home series against England in February, did not rule out an international comeback under McCullum.

"I am determined to contribute to the Black Caps team in the future and help whoever is in charge to win," he said.

Opener McCullum, 31, is widely seen as offering more attacking tactical nous than the conservative Taylor.

Hesson defended his treatment of Taylor over the captaincy, saying "there's no good time to deliver news like that" but conceded "it's been a very unfortunate week... and not the result anyone wanted".

The handling of the issue has sparked fury in New Zealand cricketing circles, with batsman Jesse Ryder tweeting that it "angers me watching Ross Taylor getting dumped on".

Retired all-rounder Scott Styris also took to the micro-blogging site saying "any goodwill/public support from fans and supporters towards the Black Caps after their brilliant win in SL [Sri Lanka] has now gone!"

TVNZ reported on Thursday that batting great Martin Crowe resigned from his post as NZC talent scout in protest at the organisation's actions.

Fairfax Media columnist Ben Stanley wrote after Friday's announcement that the episode had been "an absolutely appallingly executed operation by a national sporting body and its board".

Stanley added that the South Africa tour beginning later this month, which pits eighth-placed Test nation New Zealand against the top-ranked Proteas, was now "looming as a potential massacre".

New Zealand lost seven of 13 Tests under Taylor's captaincy, winning four and drawing two.

Two of the wins were against lowly Zimbabwe, with the highlights of his tenure a rare Test victory over Australia in Hobart in December last year and the series-levelling second Test victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo last month.

Over the same period, the Black Caps have lost one-day series to South Africa, the West Indies and Sri Lanka, with their sole series win against Zimbabwe.

SQUAD
Brendon McCullum (captain), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Dean Brownlie, Daniel Flynn, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Martin Guptill, Chris Martin, Bruce Martin, Jeetan Patel, Kane Williamson, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling.