Cricket has been a passion with me for over 70 years now. For the last 37, I have been patiently waiting for the human qualities inherent in this glorious game to surface on a consistent pattern amongst the Bangladesh cricket fraternity. These include grit, tenacity, physical and mental toughness, strength, stamina, natural talent, doggedness, sportsmanship and a host of other human values, that cricket can inculcate into those who regard it as a religion!
But regrettably, match after match, test after test, tour after tour it has been a litany of failures for Bangladeshi cricketers and cricket administrators alike, of caving in without a fight, making excuses, everlastingly (not) 'learning' from 'mistakes', blaming the pitch, the climate, the selectors, the crowd, the coach, the administrators, other batsmen, other bowlers, the butterfingers of colleagues and so on.
So I am very happy that most of our front-line cricketers have become mercenaries in the ICL. Others will also follow surely. The sums involved are such that they could not even earn a fraction of that in a lifetime of effort. Whether they will actually earn it is immaterial. They are smart enough to realise the value (or lack of it) of their own talent and we should all applaud them for sparing the nation further disappointment, shame and ridicule.
Now if only our politicians, administrators, bureaucrats etc would follow their glorious example and take their considerable talents for making easy money with least effort, to far-off shores, WE, the common people of Bangladesh, could sleep undisturbed in our hovels with equanimity.
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