Jamal wishes good luck to cricket team

Bangladesh football team's captain Jamal Bhuiyan hoped that Bangladesh would beat Afghanistan tomorrow in both cricket and football, but hoped that the sports lovers would watch and support the football team.

Bangladesh football team take on Afghanistan in the first of two FIFA Friendly matches at the Bashundhara Kings Arena tomorrow, with the match scheduled to kick off at 5:00pm. Away in Lahore, Bangladesh will be up against the Afghanistan cricket team in a do-or-die fixture in Asia Cup -- that fixture getting underway an hour-and-a-half earlier than the cricket contest.  

The football team's captain, who recently returned from Argentina after playing his first match for that country's third-tier club Sol de Mayo, hoped for wins for the men in red and green on both cricket and football pitches.

"Best wishes for the cricket team. Hope they will win. But at the same time I hope the sports lovers will watch the football match," Jamal told reporters at a press conference on Saturday when asked about this issue.

Quite uncannily, this is not the first time that Bangladesh and Afghanistan squared off against each other in these two sports around the same time. In 2019, Bangladesh lost their first-ever Test match against Afghanistan by a big margin in Chattogram. The following day, the footballers lost 1-0 in a FIFA World Cup Qualifier away from home.

However, Jamal hoped things would be positive for Bangladesh at both fronts this time around.

"It will be a good day for whole of Bangladesh if both cricket and football teams win. At the end of the day it's all about wins," Jamal said.