It is no surprise that Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's political journey has been dominating discussions in the country's sports fraternity. All were keen to know whether the Bangladesh ODI captain reached Awami League's Dhanmondi office on Sunday to collect the nomination papers.

Even Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque's masterful rescue act at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur could not drown out the buzz around Mashrafe's new adventure towards the bumpy road of politics. Soon after the news was brought to light, there have been opinions in favour and against his decision. The rights and wrongs of his decision to join politics at this moment has also become the centre of discussions in social media. There have even been whispers about whether Mashrafe was going to quit cricket as many close associates of his know that he does not relish having too many things on his plate at once.

Mashrafe's iron resolve to do well in next year's World Cup in England is also common knowledge in the cricket community and that is another reason that many have termed his timing of joining politics as inappropriate, but it is also true that the most lionhearted of Tigers is now standing at the fag end of his career.

Once Mashrafe enters the world of politics, he has to deal with debates and criticism over all the political realities as it is a very different dominion from the universal adulation in the world of cricket, especially as the country's political allegiances are sharply divided between the loyal supporters of two major parties.  

But has politics come to Mashrafe out of the blue?

When a man believes that without political involvement it is not possible to solve any social problem, including the burning issue of environmental problems and when a man has time and again said that freedom fighters, not cricketers, are the real heroes of the country, one should not doubt his political consciousness.

In March this year, this reporter had an opportunity to talk with him at length regarding his vision with the Narail Express Foundation launched in September last year, his interest in social work, future plans about his political journey and dreams of making a “better Narail”. It was then that he made it clear that he is on a mission to do something for society and gave enough indications about the importance of politics to fulfil the dreams about his native district.

Below are excerpts of the long discussion which can give our readers an idea about how he looks at the business of politics.

“You have to have some passion if you want to do something. I have passion for cricket and I have also the passion to do something for society. I am pretty confident that if I get help from everybody and I am sincere enough it would be possible for me to make something happen regarding those issues that are really serious in the society.

"I made the foundation and this is a non-political organisation. But it is not possible to do anything without the help of political people -- if they come, it will make things easy. I want them to be involved. Honestly speaking, cricket is my life and I cannot think about anything beyond cricket and as long as I am still playing cricket, it [joining politics] has never come to my mind. Nobody can predict the future but right at this moment, I am only thinking about cricket.

"Celebrities coming into politics is now a new phenomenon in the world of politics but in Bangladesh's context it is different. I however firmly believe that none can match what a political person is capable of when it comes to helping the people.

"At this moment I am totally focused on my cricket. You know I have to follow a daily plan and I need a lot of preparation everyday because of one injury after another -- it has made the task difficult for me but it has become like a dream to make a campaign for bringing back those days of Narail that existed in the '90s… affection, love for each other… health and environmental beauty.”

These few observations of Mashrafe during the lengthy discussion perhaps provided sufficient evidence that politics did not suddenly enter his mind. There may be debates over the timing of his decision but there should not be any doubt over his desire to join the country's politics.

However, one thing is now settled -- life will not be the same as before for 'Politician Mashrafe'.