Debuts for Nazmul, Hider as Tigers field

The 2022 Asia Cup will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while still being officially hosted by Sri Lanka, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) said in a statement on Wednesday. The ACC said that the tournament has been moved to the UAE "considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka". It will be played between August 27 and September 11.

"Considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the ACC after extensive deliberation has unanimously concluded that it would be appropriate to relocate the tournament from Sri Lanka to the UAE," the ACC said in a statement.

Sri Lanka has been reeling under economic and political turmoil. However, they had hosted Australia in a bilateral series and are currently hosting Pakistan. The ACC said that it had made every effort to host the tournament in the country.

"Every effort was made to host the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the decision to shift the venue to the UAE was taken after much deliberation. The UAE will be the new venue while Sri Lanka will continue to retain hosting rights," ACC president Jay Shah was quoted as saying. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly had earlier said that the tournament had been moved out of Sri Lanka to the UAE.

This will make it the second consecutive time that the tournament will be played in the UAE. The six-team Asia Cup will be played as a T20 tournament this year. India are the defending champions, having won the tournament in 2018 while it was still played in the ODI format.

The Asia Cup will be played in T20 format this time and serve as preparation for the World Cup in October. It will start with a qualifying round of matches between UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong. The winner will go on to the main tournament and play Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh kept on breaking Afghanistan's momentum in phases to eventually come out on top and level the three-match ODI series with a 68-run win in the second ODI at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium yesterday.

The win also marked Bangladesh's first win in 10 international games at the venue as the Tigers bundled the hosts out for 184 in 43.3 overs after posting a challenging 252 for seven.

Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed was the most impactful player for the Tigers, scoring a valuable 24-ball 25 at the death, hitting one four and two maximums, before finishing with figures of three for 28 in 8.3 overs, including a maiden.

It was fitting that Nasum wrapped things up for the Tigers, shattering the stumps of AM Ghazanfar, who went for a big heave and failed to connect.

After a decent start by the top order, led by skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto's 119-ball 76, Bangladesh had lost way in the middle to be left struggling at 184 for six.

It was then Nasum and debutant Jaker Ali who helped Bangladesh get to a respectable total, stitching together a 46-run seventh-wicket stand. Jaker remained unbeaten on 37 off 27 deliveries, smashing one four and three maximums.

"The way they [Jaker and Nasum] finished, it looked like we got the momentum," skipper Shanto praised the duo for their contribution during the post-match ceremony.

"That is what I want with Jaker and from someone like Nasum in the lower and middle order. Hopefully, they [Jaker and Nasum] can continue batting [like this]," Shanto said, adding that he was 'not very happy' with the way he batted even though he was adjudged the player-of-the-match for his ninth ODI fifty.

Afghanistan got a decent start in their chase, with opener Sediqullah Atal scoring 39 off 51 deliveries and Rahmat Shah hitting his 30th ODI fifty.

However, the Bangladesh bowlers managed to keep the scoring rate in check for most parts of the game, managing to get wickets at the right time.

Afghanistan lost momentum when skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (17 off 40), Rahmat Shah (52 off 76), and Azmatullah Omarzai (0 off 1) fell in the space of just six deliveries to go from 118 for two to 119 for five in 29.5 overs.

Mustafizur removed Shahidi in the 28th over before Nasum cleaned up Omarzai for his second successive duck while Rahmat fell victim to a run-out due to a horrendous miscommunication -- a collapse akin to what the Tigers faced in the first ODI.

All-rounders Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib looked to have regrouped with a 44-run sixth-wicket stand, but the partnership was ended by Shoriful when he had the latter drive one straight to extra cover in the 37th over.

Rashid Khan scored 14 off 16 deliveries before being Mustafizur's second victim of the day, but Afghanistan could never look to match the asking rate.

Simply stating that we are a cricket-loving nation does not do justice to our passion for the sport. From the gentleman's game being played out in the street to the cricket field being brought into mobile phones in the form of apps and games, our relationship with the game runs deep. Even living in a concrete jungle does not stop us from enjoying our favourite sport. Be it a patch of the alley, a garage, a corridor, or even a rooftop, we make it our glorious cricket ground and our field has its own set of rules.

These radical laws of street cricket have emerged out of sheer practicality and the interesting dynamics of the cricketers in the street — and hence, the unwritten rules of the 'Code of Street Cricket'.

Photo: Collected / Simon Reza / Unsplash

Hit too hard - and you're out! 

The makeshift cricket field is small, often surrounded by buildings. And not everyone in those buildings is cheering the batter or rooting for a whopper.

The batter, therefore, has to be very calculative with the stroke. All players verbally agree at the beginning of the game that if a batter lands the ball in certain areas from where it cannot be recouped or hits a glass window, he is out.

This golden rule often comes with a sub-clause; landing the ball in areas recognised only as 'moderately dangerous' involves a batter being 'half-out'; so, two 'half-outs' and you are gone!

On matters of skirmishes

They say cricket is a gentleman's game. They should look into street cricket.

Players sometimes break into heated arguments: "Wasn't that a no-ball? It was a run-out for sure! How can this be wide?" And so on...

While many conflicts do not have set solutions and require lawyer-level skills from both teams, certain problems are resolved easily.

For starters, there's no such thing as LBW (for obvious reasons).  Another conflict is based on the impatience for batting first. You do not want to wait and field for a long time. You want to bat! But so does every other player.

A solution involves the batting order being decided by lottery. A player goes to a corner away from others, writes numbers (one to five if there are five players, for example), draws out a line corresponding to each number, and then hides those numbers with the bat.

The rest of the players are then called to randomly choose. The bat is then removed, and the cricketers are bound to agree on the sequence!

This approach is often accompanied by a distinctive format of the game. Each team is a one-man army and gets to bat for a certain number of overs (if he remains not out), and the winner is the one who scores the highest runs.

The case of the 'common man'

At least one umpire is desirable. But strange as it may sound, the umpire in street cricket is a temporary role filled in by one of the players who is done with batting or is still waiting for his/her turn.

It is a role that can best be described as symbolic, as his/her authority can be questioned by the bowling team in the slightest case of suspicion.

Meanwhile, what if the total sum of players is an odd number? To resolve this dilemma, one player may be employed to play for both teams!

This odd player, who evens out both sides — let's call him the 'common man' — may be a junior chap or a novice player deemed as a liability.

He has yet to prove himself; becoming a game-changer in one match is what he needs!       

Photo: Collected / tazain bin alam / Unsplash

DIY crafts

The replacement of the cricket ball with a tennis ball is commonplace. If that gets too boring, just get a tape and wrap around the ball for a better substitute.  

When the concrete field does not allow you to affix the wicket, get a brick, make three holes in it, and then place the stumps. No proper wicket? No problem. Get a pile of bricks or any other object with similar dimensions. Not available? Just draw a set on the wall.  

For a team sadly without the affordability to buy a bat, wooden planks are still shaped out to work as a makeshift one.

Be it lack of money or space, nothing stops the cricket fans from playing their sport, innovating rules, making up formats and coming up with alternative equipment and gear.

Such is our love for cricket!

Bangladesh will look to improve and get a victory against Afghanistan in the second FIFA friendly match at the Bashundhara Kings Arena today, with the match kicking off 5:00pm.

The two sides are playing the FIFA friendly matches as preparation for October's pre-qualifiers of the World Cup and Asian Cup, and both teams are focused on fine-tuning their squads and finalising strategies.

The first match ended in a 1-1 draw with both sides creating a few of chances but none of them could take those home. Both sides were seemingly satisfied with sharing the spoils of a draw, but both coached want to end the two-match series on high note by winning the second match.

"We are in the process to prepare and improve as much as we can to play against Maldives and we need to do it which is a must. Obviously, we will be focusing on the improvement and hopefully winning the match too," Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera told reporters.