Home ›› 29 Jul 2021 ›› Sport
Ashfaq ul Islam Bappy, the man who spotted teenage Shakib Al Hasan in a talent hunt camp in Narail, is now serving as the head coach and General Manager of the Cricket Federation in Myanmar for almost a decade.
Bappy, a student of the very first batch of the “Cricket” discipline at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan, got into cricket coaching after a brief stint as a professional cricketer. Later on, he joined the Bangladesh Cricket Board as the Game Education Manager under the Game Development Committee.
While talking to The Business Post, Bappy took a trip down memory lane and shared his first memories of spotting young Shakib in the nationwide talent hunt camp at Narail.
“Saddam Hossain Gorki, a local umpire and cricket enthusiast, first told me about a boy named Shakib. In the camp, he was unique, unlike everyone else. He was very natural with his bowling. It was effortless for him. At that time, there had been a flow of left-arm spinners in our country as there was Enamul Haque, Mohammad Rafique, and Abdur Razzak. After I saw him bowl, I was convinced that this kid can make it to the national team,” Bappy told TBP from Myanmar, where he is currently stationed by the Asian Cricket Council.
Shakib is not known as a hard-working cricketer like Mushfiqur Rahim, who spends hours in the nets. Bappy said that Shakib had that habit in his earlier days also.
“In the camp, we found him very interesting. He was very economical about his efforts. He was not one of those boys who work hard in the nets and cannot convert them in the match. Rather, he was the opposite. It is not like that he cannot. When he was given any task that requires, he used to do that comfortably. It was his match reading capacity or the situation reading capacity which he had since his early ages helped him to grow as a cricketer of this class,” he said to TBP.
Bappy is mesmerised by the batting abilities of Shakib that took him to the next level.
“His batting was never very pleasing or eye-catching, which is still true but has always been effective. His first big knock maybe came in Faridpur, where he scored a hundred against a visiting Cricket Association of Bengal XI. After getting admitted to BKSP, he came under the supervision of Fahim sir (Nazmul Abedeen) and Salahuddin sir, who took care of his batting to make him an asset for Bangladesh,” said Bappy.
But at the same time, Bappy thinks that Shakib has lost the beauty of his bowling.
“The bowling which caught our eyes during the selection camp and the later years, I find it missing nowadays. Maybe he has changed it after listening to some coach or consultant as he comes across too many specialists,” told Bappy.
The former BCB official also admits that they never thought that Shakib would reach this height.
“When we spotted him in the talent hunt camp, and later when we saw him in BKSP, we were pretty sure that he would play for the Bangladesh team. He was a good bowler, athletic fielder, and agile in movements. We predicted that he would be a good bowler, but nobody predicted that he would be a player of such stature. I see many claims that he predicted one day Shakib would be a great player, but honestly, that was not the case,” said Bappy.
Shakib’s finder now serves as the coach and GM for the Myanmar Cricket federation on behalf of ACC, and Bappy told TBP that he is facing a very opposite problem of which Bangladesh is facing at present.
“In Myanmar, there is no shortage of grounds. Each school has grounds and indoors. The real shortage is for a skilled workforce, coaches and trainers to teach more players. Myanmar has a long history of cricket from the colonial period. The sport was quite popular among the Indian diaspora. But after political changes, Myanmar is now trying to build teams with only local players, players with Burmese origin,” said Bappy.
Bappy might be looking for his next prospect who can change the face of Myanmar Cricket, just like Shakib, who gave Bangladesh cricket a major facelift with his phenomenal performance.
