Taskin Ahmed’s rehabilitative work has paid dividends and led to joyous scenes in his neighbourhood, but there remains much hard work to be done by other Bangladesh bowlers with suspect actions
Mohammad Isam24-Sep-2016A garland was put around Taskin Ahmed’s neck as he was mobbed by neighbours, friends and relatives on Friday evening. The Bangladesh fast bowler couldn’t enter his house in southern Mohammadpur as kids of all ages tried to lift his hand. He waved at the crowd and shed a few tears.Less than a kilometer to the west, selector Habibul Bashar was about to go to the pharmacy when his wife, scared of all the bursts and pops in the nearby area, asked him to stay indoors. Bashar headed out nonetheless, unaware of what was happening just few blocks away. When he arrived at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Saturday, he greeted Taskin who then described what had happened outside his house.”They burst crackers and rockets worth thousands. Everyone was celebrating, including my parents. I joined in too,” said a smiling Taskin, who had informed his mother first when he heard the good news on Friday afternoon.It was a scene out of an election campaign, and hardly something you would imagine for a fast bowler who had just had his bowling action cleared by the ICC. Certainly no cricketer who had just got cleared for an illegal bowling action has received such a reception.But that is how they roll in Zakir Hossain Road, Taskin’s quiet central Dhaka neighbourhood. When he plays for Bangladesh, there are posters of him everywhere in the area and kids try to imitate his bowling action and latest hairstyle. When he does well, his parents see neighbours bursting crackers and wishing them well. Now, they were celebrating the end of his exile, or at least that’s what it felt like.”When I walked out in the street, people asked me why my arm wasn’t straight,” Taskin said, recalling the time after his action had been reported. “There was a lot of pressure on me, so I am really happy now. This is an occasion to feel relieved, and I look forward to returning to international cricket.”The clean chit for Taskin’s action came as a satisfying reward for his hard work in the nets with bowling coach Mahbub Ali Zaki. It also vindicated his decision to play for Abahani Limited in the Dhaka Premier League, Bangladesh’s domestic one-day tournament, which was seen at the time as a risky move and a hindrance to his rehabilitative training routine.But Taskin regularly worked overtime after Abahani’s training sessions between April and June, ensuring he was progressing as planned by Heath Streak and later Zaki. He monitored every single delivery, and then the footage was passed on to the BCB’s newly-formed bowling action review committee in August. He gave a mock test in front of their cameras, after which he was told that his bouncer, the delivery identified as illegal in Chennai in March, looked clean. But no one could be sure.Taskin and Arafat Sunny headed out earlier this month to Brisbane for their reassessment, their only route back to international cricket. Both are now in the clear, and for Taskin there is immediate on-field action in the Afghanistan-Bangladesh ODI series.The boisterous celebrations demonstrated Taskin’s popularity, but the experience he and Sunny have had over the last six months should serve as a cautionary tale for the many domestic bowlers whose actions have been questioned by the BCB’s review committee. It was the suspensions of Taskin and Sunny that spurred the BCB to take suspect bowling action seriously in domestic cricket, so the garlands and firecrackers shouldn’t mark the end of this problem.It was Taskin and Sunny who were given the relief, and before them Abdur Razzak and Sohag Gazi. The rest of the country’s suspected and illegal bowlers would still need to correct their actions, and the BCB must remain vigilant and keep weeding out the suspects.
