Young, but promising. Enthusiastic, but always kept his feet
on the ground. Steady, resolve and blessed with willpower. It was an eventful
debut for Javed Omar.
The winter of 2000 ended with a lot of joy and enthusiasm
for Bangladesh. The first four days of Bangladesh’s inaugural Test match
against India at Bangabandhu National Stadium would remain as the talk of the
town till the end of that year. While passing by a small cafeteria or tea
stall, the words Aminul Islam, Habibul Bashar, Naimur Rahman or Mohammad
Rafique would enter your ears by dissecting the evening fog which engulfed
Dhaka in those days.
It’s always a nice feeling when you hear people talking more
about the local cricketers and not foreign ones. The mentality of Bangladesh’s
cricket fraternity was changing gradually. T was time to talk about their own
players. Cricket would remain just another sport in Bangladesh.
But still, the young Test nation had a long way to go.
According to many critics, it was early for Bangladesh to receive the coveted
Test status. The performance in the inaugural Test match did help the Tigers to
shut the mouth of critics, but in the upcoming days, things only got worse for
Bangladesh. Even though, amid the heavy defeats, there were flashes of
individual brilliance, which gave hope for a better future.
Bangladesh’s first tour to abroad was in Zimbabwe in April,
2001. The month of April, 2001 was eventful: Seven people were killed in bomb blast at a Bengali New Year concert in Dhaka. 1 Indian and 3
Bangladeshi soldiers killed in their worst border clashes and the High Court
confirmed death sentences on 12 ex-army officers for killing Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman. Only four were in custody. Especially, the bomb blast at Ramna
Botomul during Pohela Boishak rocked the nation. It triggered a shock wave
around the nation and left everyone stunned as Bangladesh were experiencing
such an incident for the first time.
The Tigers left the country with the motive to prove a point
in Zimbabwe and make the tragic incident at Ramna Botomul to work as a
motivating factor or them.
Zimbabwe in 2001 was a very competent Test side. They used
to give testing times even the best in the business at their own backyard. The
likes of Flower brothers, Heath Streak, Stuart Carlisle and Alastair Campbell
made Zimbabwe a team to watch. In terms of experience and skill, they were way
ahead of visitors.
The first Test match was at Queens Sports Club at Bulawayo.
The home team prepared a greenish pitch as John Ward’s match report quoted, “a pitch
containing an unusual amount of grass for this venue”. Streak won the toss and
invited the visitors to bat on a seaming-friendly track.
Blignaut ended the stay of Mehrab Hossain and Habibul Bashar
and 30 for 2 scoreline in the 14th over did not surprise anyone. It was
evident, but what was not expected, the resolve and technical expertise from a
young man named Javed Omar, who was making his debut at that time.
With the sun shining brightly above, scripting a sultry
weather and the track doing a lot, steadiness and exhibition of character were
required. Javed forgot about what was happening all around him. Neither
the hot and humid weather, nor the ecstasy of the home team could overcast his
will to perform. He knew, he had is imitations, but he was not in short of
self-confidence.
Rock solid defence had always been an asset for Javed. He
was one of those nuggety characters who would make the opposition grind with
his tendency to occupy the crease. Of course, he would not just waste his stay
at the crease, but as soon as he discovered his groove, he would flay some
eye-catching strokes on both sides of the wicket.
Streak and Blignaut were tough to handle and when Watambwa
came on to bowl, he was faster than his predecessors. But Javed remained unfazed
by the hostility. Rather, he was pretty competent while getting behind the line
of the ball better and never let the loose deliveries go wasted as they were
smacked for fours.
Along with Aminul Islam, Javed weathered the storm well and
went for lunch with no further damage. After lunch, he slashed Streak and
Blignaut over the slip cordon for four. Then they were hit through backward
point by getting on the back foot like an experienced campaigner and well, one
needs to accolade him for his timing through the offside field.
Javed fell after scoring 62 runs with nine fours and
stitching an 84-run stand for the third wicket with Aminul Islam. It helped to
arrest a collapse, but all the good works were wasted as the visitors lost
wickets cheaply at the fag end of Day 1.
In the second innings, while trailing by 200 runs, Javed
raised above the rest when Streak, Blignaut and Matambwa set jitters I
Bangladesh batting lineup. The Bangladesh middle-order batsmen lost
their vim after toiling hard under the hot sun and simply failed to focus on
what was happening in the middle. But the young Javed would not give up so
easily.
He would spend 277 minutes at the crease and face 68 balls
to essay an innings of 85 runs. While the rest of the team would add just 83
runs and digest an innings defeat.
Javed’s knock in the second innings was much more fluent
than the first. Especially, his foot movement. It was synchronous along with
his bat-swing. If he executed a shot through the covers, the toe end would face
towards that area along with the bat and if anything pitched short, he would
get very well on the back to achieve enough time to use the middle portion of
the willow to flay the ground shots.
Well, not a bad show from a young player who was playing his
first Test. Also, not a bad lesson from a débutante who taught others about how
to exhibit character on foreign soil.
Note: This article was published at Cricketsoccer on 09/04/2018 CS Flashback: When Javed Omar taught a young Test nation about exhibiting character away from home
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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