The Wellington warning

I have long been hearing, from cricketers and fellow journalists, about the fear that flying into the powerful wind of Wellington engender even among hardened passengers. So there were some real nerves while travelling from Hamilton to cover the second Test, especially when the pilot announced that the aircraft was about to land in Wellington. I was expecting turbulence and stiffened up for some time but luckily, the experience turned out not to be scary as it was a smooth landing to the capital. Fortunately, I never had a fear of flying and was very confident when it was time to fly out from Wellington towards Christchurch for the third Test.

However, yesterday was probably the first time that I was a petrified passenger when the aircraft took off from as the entire plane was shaking. The sense of security on the ground gave way, after takeoff,  to a certainty that the contents of my stomach would escape the way they went in and my hands started to shake and sweat at the same time. After experiencing the most horrible takeoff in my life for at least two minutes, things finally returned to normal but I will never forget this experience. I now also have a Wellington warning for my friends.

IS THAT MUSHRIQUR?

In the recent ESPN's The Magazine named the top hundred famous athletes in the world for the year 2019 and Mushfiqur Rahim was among three Bangladeshi cricketers in the list alongside Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.

The survey was conducted on the basis of three fame factors -- Google trend score, endorsement dollars, and social media followers, to calculate an overall ranking. Mushfiqur was ranked 92nd in the list and talking about his popularity, the former Bangladesh captain is being recognised widely across the world. Such an incident took place when the wicketkeeper-batsman just came out of the team hotel in Christchurch and a few of the passer-by were whispering, "Is that Mushriqur ?"

Just a few steps later there was a group of Indian tourists who started to follow Mushfiqur and were saying to each other: "That's the Bangladesh captain, he is staying in the same hotel, we should take a picture with him."

Indeed Mushfiqur is famous!