Tamim Iqbal - the miracle of Chittagong

[asterix]

Nothing to be ashamed of though. If England does it then why not Pakistan or India. The case of African born n raised players playing for world super power England is no different then Bangladesh born n raised players playing for still 3rd world countries Pakistan n India. We are just too complex in the way we think. Maybe someday Gangulies or Rashid Latifs can play for Bangladesh. Ed Joyce once played for Ireland then played for England now wants to play for Ireland again. Why things would be different for South Asians.

Meh!!

[b555]

:wall:

[Temujin Khaghan]

@ op any chance mitch, steyn have the indian connection atleast morkel? :((

[Zap_Brannigan]

A billion plus population and some people wishing we get players from other countries.

The worst part is they think that he would replace Sehwag or Gambhir?

[UmarAkmal]

Otherwise there would be a queue from at least the elite Pakis -- to settle in India. Adnan Sani ro begin with and also the 2 cents actress from Lahore, don'teven know her name wanted to settle down here.

Why would anybody want to migrate from one third world country to another ?? :dontknow:

[Zap_Brannigan]

Why would anybody want to migrate from one third world country to another ?? :dontknow:

You really must be ignorant to think that Pak and India are one and the same...Even if you look at all our cricketers or politicians, Indians mostly settle down in India while most pakis get the hell out of pakistan as soon as their career is over.

[SachDan]

wow! back-to-back test hundreds :hatsoff:

[Pak_Fan_4_Eva]

Tamim has impressed me greatly. That kid has improved his temperament a lot. I hope Insh'Allah he`ll be consistent with these performances and not do another Ashraful lol

[Guest Hiten.]

FFS! What a **** team is this. The guy effing scores a blazing hundred and yet they find themselves in dipshit. His knocks are going in vain and there seems to be no one supporting him. Sigh, another well played innings and another ton in vain

[diegovegaz]

two back to back hundreds against england. class should continue this form in tests he's the kind of player, when he departs, the ball seems to start doing too much

[b555]

Tamim Iqbal - the miracle of Chittagong

The 21-year-old batsman would walk into any Test side and is just one reason why Bangladesh belong at cricket's top table, writes Jon Gemmell Cricket Chittagong is home to Bangladesh's main seaport making it the country's major commercial centre and second largest city. It is surrounded by hills which provide an opportune setting to stage a revolt. A guerilla outfit, the Republican Army, staged an uprising against the British Raj in 1930 and sought to capture the city's two main armouries. During the Bangladesh Liberation War the city witnessed some of the heaviest fighting and was the venue for the first public announcement declaring independence. Following independence the city underwent a major rebuilding programme. The wider reconstruction process involved the promotion of sports as a means of uniting the people behind a political project and forging a sense of national unity. Within just 25 years, one of the poorest regions of the subcontinent had gone from being part of India to a remote member of Pakistan to independent Bangladesh. Seeing the role that cricket played in post-colonial India and Pakistan it was expected that it would surpass football as the new country's national sport. Bangladesh are the most recent side to be granted Test match status and are a young team not just in the years they have been playing Test cricket - 10 - but also in their current squad which includes 12 players who are aged 23 or less. England by contrast have just two. It's fair to say that progress has been sluggish in the five-day format but to continue to have questions raised about their international status is insensitive if not a little boorish, especially when you consider that it took India 20 years to win a Test match and New Zealand 26. How would we know if a side were good enough if they were not allowed to play against the best teams? The concern today would be that a side denied international status would focus instead on the shorter format of the sport which could only undermine Test cricket in the long term. Chittagong is also the birthplace of the explosive opening batter Tamim Iqbal. The inventive cricketer scored two hundreds in the recent series against England to match scores of 86, 85 and 52 in the home series against England last March. To remove Bangladesh's Test match status would deprive the cricket-loving public of a player who has the aptitude and the self-belief to rewrite the chapter in the coaching manual that deals with the attributes of the opening batter. Aged only 21, he already has some impressive statistics. He scored 84 in his debut Test, against New Zealand in Dunedin in January, 2008, and his maiden Test century against the West Indies last year. On March 13 2010, while batting against England, he became the second youngest player in Test history, behind Sachin Tendulkar, to reach 1,000 runs. The inevitable comparisons will be made with the Indian genius, but in fact Iqbal has more in common with the expressive Virender Sehwag or Chris Gayle. His style seems more suited to one-day cricket, employing a number of shots that leave you both bewildered and foreseeing his downfall. There is also a sense of injustice that provides steel to Iqbal's temperament. He credited remarks from Geoffrey Boycott that Bangladesh were not worthy of Test status for the brutal hundred that he scored in the second innings at Lord's. Supporters will need to remain cautious. Many will recall Mohammad Ashraful's destruction of Australian bowling in a one-day international at Cardiff in 2005, and the expectations that he would propel Bangladesh to cricket's high table. However, the Tigers now have a player who strikes trepidation into his opponents. This was evident in the field England set to him at the start of his first innings at Old Trafford. Two slips and a gully speaks more of containment than attack, and is more likely in the 25th over than the first. Michael Vaughan believes that Iqbal would get into any current Test side while Vic Marks described him as "arguably the most charismatic batsman on the planet." There is little room for sentiment in international sport, but to argue that Bangladesh don't belong is callous. Their propensity to collapse is a worry, but two of those occasions against England were assisted by alien conditions that can be overcome by playing more not less. They have certainly provided more entertainment and given England better competition than the West Indies who filled a similar role last year. It will be a fortunate county that hires the prolific Iqbal. To his and Bangladesh's detractors, consider that half of its population live on less than $1.25 a day and half of its children aged under five are underweight and then marvel that there is a side at all.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/91317

[achilles]

Bangladesh's Tendulkar

[The Outsider]

The 21-year-old batsman would walk into any Test side and is just one reason why Bangladesh belong at cricket's top table, writes Jon Gemmell

:laugh: Just couldn't get myself to read any further.

[asterix]

:laugh: Just couldn't get myself to read any further.

Agree..:haha:

[SachDan]

The 21-year-old batsman would walk into any Test side and is just one reason why Bangladesh belong at cricket's top table, writes Jon Gemmel

Isn't the second part more entertaining? :haha:

[b555]

Isn't the second part more entertaining? :haha:

:haha:

[riasat]

crickets top table means "on the test arena"....stop being such jerks....No one ever suggested that they are any better than the bottom ranked test side in the world. however bangladesh belongs to be a test side....

[Clarke]

crickets top table means "on the test arena"....stop being such jerks....No one ever suggested that they are any better than the bottom ranked test side in the world. however bangladesh belongs to be a test side....

:ohmy:

[Zap_Brannigan]

however bangladesh belongs to be a test side....

Because 1 player who averages 40 hit a purple patch?

[Mr Eintstein]

:ohmy:

I seriously dislike posters who reply just with smileys. Only word for it is childish...