Beyond the boundary - A Nation Salutes (1 June 1999)

1 June 1999

Beyond the boundary - A Nation Salutes

Shakil Kasem

Take a bow, gentlemen. This nation salutes you.

This is confession time. There are tears in my eyes as I write this column. As a player who was proud to have donned the Bangladesh colours, but more importantly as a Bangladeshi, I am overwhelmed beyond measure. Samuel Beckett once said, "Words are all we have, so we must be careful about how we use them." No words could be enough or remotely adequate to describe how this nation felt as the tigers from Bangladesh stalked the serene surroundings of the English countryside.

For the benefit of meaningless statistics this match would go down in the record books as Bangladesh beat Pakistan. But it goes much, much beyond merely that. Let us not lose sight of the bigger picture. This victory was for pride, for redemption, for putting one across to the old country. For far too long, the people of this country had to look for a team to support at the international level. The wait is over. Our own team is there, in flesh, in blood and with the glint of battle in our eyes. For the second time in the last 28 years, Pakistan was brought down to its knees, by a nation that is fiercely proud of itself. The cricketers have reminded us all over again of our identity. Sit up, world, and take notice.

Bangladesh saved its finest hour for its match against Pakistan. There is more than just irony ingrained in this quirk of historical importance. This victory transcended beyond the boundaries of cricket. We outplayed the Pakistanis at every turn and didn't we just love that?

To get back to the prosaic nitty gritty of the match itself, other teams in the super six would be grateful to Aminul Islam and his men for exposing the weak links in the Pakistani line-up. Certainly, they are not the same team when they bat second. Their top order is suspect. They have a few out of form batsmen who do not look like they are likely to pose a lot of threats to bowling sides, more and better equipped than the Bangladesh attack. The proverbial unsound temperament of the Pakistan team has at last reared its ugly head.

For the first time in this competition, Bangladesh crossed the 200 barrier. With that came down the walls of our psychological inhibitions. The bowling of our second string attack was a revelation, the fielding par excellence. Everything was in place for our tryst with destiny. We came, we saw, we did not get conquered. What more can we ask? Pakistan would need to go back to the drawing boards, this is a shock not likely to leave them for sometime yet. Bangladesh have no further role to play in this competition, other than perhaps to walk tall in England for a few more days. The last big upset of this century has Bangladesh's signature on it.

Come back early, team. A grateful nation awaits.

Oh, there was another match going on, but who cares?

Source :: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)