I was introduced cricket by my dad who took me to the Dhaka stadium on a January day in 1977 to watch the match between Bangladesh and MCC.

With his help, I learnt the basics of the game. Radio commentary from both India and Bangladesh, plus odd matches at school further enhanced my knowledge of the game. As I gradually learnt the game, many players from both home and abroad made great impressions on me.

Here, I would like to recall three of my childhood cricketing heroes, all from Bangladesh. Of course, Bangladesh cricket at the time was very much in the developing stages.

They had little or no opportunity to play at the highest level, so any attempt to compare their records with the best in the business would be completely meaningless. I would simply like to remember them as men who gave so much joy during my childhood.

Syed Ashraful Haq
When I first saw him play, against the MCC at Dhaka in January 1977, he was out for a first ball duck.

Four years later, in another fixture against the MCC, Richard Hutton from Yorkshire, lofted him for three successive sixes on his way to a quick fifty. Yet, I consider him as a hero and a role model.

Of course, it would be wrong to judge him by these failures alone. There were some brilliant performances from him with both bat and ball in both international and domestic cricket.

While he failed in Dhaka against the MCC, he scored a classy 68 at Chittagong. Chittagong seemed to be his favourite venue because a year later he scored 49 and 42 against a strong Sri Lankan side.

It should be mentioned in a badly one-sided series, not a single Bangladesh batsman managed to reach fifty, and Ashraful’s 49 was the highest individual score for the locals.

With the ball, Ashraful’s best effort came in the 1979 ICC Trophy, played in England. Bangladesh went into their first match against Fiji as the clear favourites, but batting first, the Tigers struggled badly on an underprepared wicket.

Only Khaled Rumy, batting at number three managed to show some resistance, making a gritty 28. At the end, the tail-enders, Daulat, Dipu and Masud took the Bangladesh score past 100.

Still, a target of 104 from 60 overs looked easy, until Ashraful weaved his magic off-spin. None of the Fiji batsmen had any clue on how to handle him.

Wickets fell one after the other and his 7/23 led Bangladesh to a 22-run victory. In the process, Ashraful created a record for the best bowling in the ICC trophy – a record which stood for 15 years until Denmark’s quick, Ole Mortensen took 7 for 19 against Israel at Nairobi.

Ashraful started the 80s well, becoming the first Bangladeshi player to score a double century in domestic cricket.

But, after a disappointing 1981-82 season, he retired from international cricket. Afterwards, he became heavily involved with cricket administration. As a top executive of the ACC, he contributed greatly in popularizing cricket in Bangladesh, as well as other parts of Asia.

Raqibul Hassan
In February of 1971, a huge crowd gathered in Dhaka to watch a four-day ‘Test’ between a Pakistan XI and the touring Commonwealth XI.

The unofficial nature of the match didn’t seem to bother the crowd. The reason behind their joy was the fact that, for the first time, a Bengali player, Raqibul Hassan was included.

With the Pakistani side scheduled to tour England during the summer, Raqibul, with his immaculate technique against the fast bowling looked a good prospect. But destiny had other plans for Raqibul. Within months, instead of playing for Pakistan, he had to flee to Calcutta to save his life.

He returned later in the year, only to be devastated by the news of the killing of his mentor Haleem Chowdhury (Shahid Jewel). Not only was Haleem his opening partner for the East Pakistan side, they used to be roommates on away matches.

Amidst all these ups and downs, Raqibul didn’t lose his composure and soon he started playing a leading role in establishing the cricketing infrastructure of this newborn country.

And quite appropriately, he was given the job of leading the local side in our entrance to the international arena. On the final day of 1976, he led the North Zone side against the touring MCC side at Rajshahi in the very first international match in Bangladesh’s cricketing history.

A batsman of the Ken Barrington mould, Raqibul was a great believer in building his innings. A short man, he didn’t possess the big shots, but his defence was faultless and like most other short players, he scored a lot playing square of the wicket.

In Rajshahi, he missed out on the first innings but made amends on the next day with a patient 73. He followed this with 74 and 33* at Jessore.

Raqibul was given the duty to lead the national team the very next season. He, like everybody else, struggled against a strong Sri Lankan attack.

Raqibul found his form against the Deccan Blues. He scored 64 and led his side to a score of 9 for 320. When he failed in the next season against a mediocre MCC bowling attack, it was clear to everyone that captaincy was becoming a burden for Raqibul and WK Hira would replace him.

Raqibul reached the peak of his form during the 1980-81 season. Batting at number four, he gave the side stability as the stroke-makers, Yousuf Babu, and the young trio of Lipu, Mantu and Rafiq went for their shots.

He started the season with a patient 40 not out for the Central Zone against the tourists. At Chittagong, he looked all set for a hundred, but inclement weather intervened to deny him the chance. He was left unbeaten on 78.

Undaunted, he scored half-centuries in each innings at Dhaka. From the next season onwards, the focus of Bangladesh cricket shifted from the longer version of the game towards the shorter version and this shift didn’t suit Raqibul.

Although he remained a national team member for five more years, his role in the side diminished gradually. He retired from the international cricket after the 1986 ICC trophy at a relatively early age of 32, paving the way for the youngsters to take over.

Record books tell us in his two full ODIs he scored just 17 runs. His record in the ICC trophy is hardly better – 340 runs at an average of 22.67 – with a highest score of 47 not out.

But statistics tell nothing about the true contribution of this man to Bangladesh cricket. A perfect gentleman, on and off the field, he was a role model to the first generation of Bangladeshi cricketers. Nearly quarter of a century after his retirement, he remains a source of inspiration to current generation cricketers.

Omar Khaled Rumy
Among the first generation Bangladeshi batsmen, Raqibul had the best technique, Yousuf Rahman Babu was the most aggressive and Omar Khaled Rumy was without doubt the most stylish.

He enjoyed playing off the front foot down the ground. At his prime, quick footwork and effortless timings were the trademarks of his batting. During the second half of the 1970s, he was at his prolific best in the domestic arena.

But sadly, the elegant batsman never played a big innings for the national team. Time and time again, he would patiently build his innings, only to throw it away.

Too many dismissals in the 20s and 30s from a top-order batsman never did much good for the side. He was a notoriously bad runner between the wickets – still, two innings from him in international matches deserve some attention.

The first came at Dhaka in the spring of 1978. Bangladesh cricket was passing through a difficult period at the time after being humiliated by Sri Lanka in January.

As the Tigers took on the Deccan Blues Side in a three-day match, led by former Indian captain Ajit Wadekar, confidence in the local side was low. The tourists batted first and thanks to an effortless hundred from the skipper, declared early on the second morning with a score in advance of 400.

The two Bangladesh openers perished cheaply leaving Rumy and Raqibul at the wicket. Raqibul, decided to dig in while Rumy went on the counter-attack. After playing two overs carefully, he then struck three fours in the next. He scored only 32, before being bowled by the googly from Narasimha Rao, but he gave the Tigers a much-needed confidence boost.

Raqibul top scored with 64 while Ashraful, Yousuf Babu and WK Hira all made useful contributions as Bangladesh reached 9 declared for 320. After the match, the visiting captain described Rumy as the best batsman in the Bangladesh team.

I have already talked about the match against Fiji. On an underprepared wicket, his patient 28 laid the foundation for victory. His effort was overshadowed by the brilliant bowling of Ashraful, but this clearly showed Rumy’s ability to convert his game depending on the situation.

A free-flowing stroke-maker, he curbed his natural stroke-play to counter the difficult batting conditions.

Rumy suffered a bad finger injury in the middle of the 1980-81 season and although he returned to the national team later in the season, he was never the same player. While he remained in the national team until the 1983-84 season, during the later part of his career, he was more of a fringe player, rather than a match-winning all-rounder.

I watched him play twice during the twilight of his career. In March 1983, he was part of a team that took on Dilip Doshi’s West Bengal team in a 45-over match.

Just days earlier, the local side was humiliated in a three-day match, as our top order collapsed badly against the left arm spin of Doshi. Here, the local side made a good start by restricting the opposition side to just 175 all out.

Sadly for the Tigers, the reply started on the wrong foot, as both openers Nazim and Misah were run out cheaply, leaving Rumy and Raqibul at the wicket. Yet again, they were left with the job of repairing the early damages.

Some of the crowd recalled their heroics against Wadekar’s men a few years earlier. It was clear early for once our heroes were not up to their task. One day cricket never suited Raqibul and Rumy looked a shadow of his old self.

His feet weren’t moving properly and he wasn’t timing the ball. Apart from one straight drive, it was only defence with most of his runs coming from pushes and nudges.

As the asking run rate rose, so did the pressure and at the end both Rumy and Raqibul perished after reaching the 20s as the local team suffered another crushing defeat.

A year later, Hyderabad Blues (also known as the Deccan Blues), led by Gundappa Viswanath, were the tourists. This time, I saw Rumy with the ball in a three-day match. It is worth mentioning that apart from being a brilliant batsman, Rumy was a highly talented leg-spinner.

He had a good googly and often used his height to get extra bounce out of the wicket. In 1978-79, Rumy, along with left-arm spinner Lintu and off-spinner Ashraful, had mesmerized the touring MCC batsmen.

Also, Shafiq-Ul-Haq Hira, the ever-reliable wicketkeeper, gave the spinners excellent support with his work behind the stumps.

Only the former Test players, Sir Conrad Hunte (West Indies) and John Jameson (England) had the technique to handle a varied spin attack in the slow turning conditions. Then in 1982, during the second ICC trophy, Rumy formed a good partnership with the offie Azhar.

And against the Blues, it was the same pair, Rumy and Azhar, who dominated the action. On a turning track, they appeared unplayable to the Indian batsmen. Azhar took four victims and Rumy picked up two as the Blues’ middle order collapsed badly.

And at the end, it was only the intervention of their captain saving the day for the tourists. This was the first time I saw Vishy bat and I was greatly impressed by his effortless stroke-making. Overall, it was a highly satisfactory day for me, the only regret was missing Hira behind the stumps.

After captaining the national team from 1979 to 1983, he had struggled for his form in the 1983-84 season and had lost both his captaincy and place in the side.

Raqibul had regained the captaincy, while Faisal Haider, the young Biman wicketkeeper had come to the team. The selectors, however, gave Hira a farewell match in national colours later in the season.

Rumy, too, left the international scene at the end of the season. But, he remained a prominent figure in the domestic arena for s couple of years after that.