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Journalism of Courage
It is 7.30 am, and among the scores of cricketers doing their morning workouts at the Dhanmondi cricket ground, one person 8212; with a serious distinction 8212; dies his best not to stand out. Naimur Rehman captained the first Bangladesh Test side 8212; against India in November 200 8212; but just eight Tests later found himself out of favour with the selectors and has since plied his trade for Abahani Club in the Bangladeshi domestic scene.
8216;8216;I led for seven straight Tests he played eight in total, and I am happy to be part of history. Its a rare honour, though the most important thing is to be able to play,8217;8217; the 30-year-old says with pride as The Indian Express takes him groundside.
8216;8216;There were phone calls galore. We checked in a day before in the hotel. I met Sourav Ganguly and the rest of the Indians. I remember that Sourav kept asking us to 8216;keep fighting8217;. It8217;s all like a dream now,8217;8217; Naimur says.
But since that bit of history, Bangladesh hasn8217;t progressed much in world cricket. 8216;8216;We haven8217;t gone far. Improvement is coming but there has not been much of it,8217;8217; Naimur says, visibly unhappy. 8216;8216;When we started there was a lot of hope. I think we have experimented far too much with coaches changing all the time. The system is not quite in place.8217;8217;
To place Naimur8217;s sentiment in perspective: around 40 players have played Tests in this four-year-period and there have been four coaches and three other captains in charge. Dav Whatmore8217;s current regime, however, gives Naimur hope. He says that things are turning for the better under Whatmore, but the selectors have to 8216;8216;stick to youngsters and encourage them8217;8217; to move forward.
A regular for Abahani for 11 seasons now, Naimur wants to continue till he enjoys the game. But after that, Naimur wants his eight-month-old son to grow up so that he can tell him about all the 8216;8216;good times8217;8217;. 8216;8216;And that cerainly includes the captaincy,8217;8217; he signs off as it is time to join his clubmates in a practice session.
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Bangladesh 1st Innings: 184 Story continues below this ad Bangladesh 2nd Innings: Javed Omar lbw Pathan 4; Nafis Iqbal lbw Kumble 54; Habibul Bashar c Zaheer Khan b Pathan 12; Rajin Saleh lbw Pathan 0; Mohammad Ashraful lbw Pathan 0; Khaled Mashud c Karthik b Pathan 5; Manjural Islam Rana batting 50; Mushfiqur Rahman c Dravid b Harbhajan Singh 6; Mohammad Rafique c Sehwag b Kumble 11; Tapash Baisya batting 17; |
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