Cricket: Bangladesh's young guns set sights high

By RICHARD BOOCK

The story goes that 17-year-old batting star Mohammad Ashraful was laughed at last year when he spoke of his desire to play cricket at the highest level.

At that stage, the soon-to-be world recordholder was in Sri Lanka playing for Bangladesh in the under-19 World Cup, and had attracted the mirth of a group of scorers - who had overheard him speaking of his desperation to make the grade.

Ashraful, one of five players under 20 in the Bangladesh touring team, had the last laugh when he was not only selected to play for his national side for their inaugural test in September, but became the youngest player in history to score a test century.

His 114 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in September transformed his status in Bangladesh from a Dhaka-born nobody to a household name, and continued the trend of subcontinent nations producing some of the best and most promising young players in the world.

Pakistan's Mushtaq Mohammad was 17 years and 82 days old when he struck a century against India, and Sachin Tendulkar was 17 years and 112 days when he scored his maiden test century against England at Old Trafford.

Ashraful's milestone initially came under some scrutiny because, like so many of the young players to come out of the populous region, there was some confusion over his age.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board said he was born on September 8, 1984, but the young batsman stated his true birth date as July 7, 1984 - which means he was either 16 years and 364 days or 17 years and 63 days when he scored his century.

Either way, he was the youngest to score 100.

When it comes to the youngest member of the present touring squad, however, Ashraful has to take a back seat to pace bowler Mohammad Sharif.

If the records are to be believed, Sharif turned 16 on the first day of Bangladesh's match against Auckland last week.

Understandably, he was barely known even a year ago.

His call-up to the test squad came after he captured 49 wickets in his country's domestic league last season, when he ended as the second highest wicket-taker.

The next youngest players in the side are 18-year-old opening bowler Masrafe bin Mortaza and 18-year-old batsman Tushar Omar.

It might seem that the pressures of international cricket would weigh particularly heavily on such youthful shoulders, but Bangladesh coach Trevor Chappell believes the opposite has occurred.

"Psychologically, they're pretty good," he said.

"They seem pretty philosophical about the way things have been going.

"They have a lot of enthusiasm and they have an extraordinary ability to quickly bounce back from disappointment. This is a complete new experience and they know that it's going to take time, and that there will be a few knocks and pitfalls along the way.

"The important thing is that they appreciate that they can't be too impatient, and at the same time they're also aware of the steady improvement they're making."

However, for all their youth, the tourists have a strong core of older heads in the squad.

The most senior are 35-year-old Enamul Hoque, 33-year-old Aminul Islam and 30-year-old Khaled Mahmud, followed by star batsman Habibul Bashar, 29, and Mohammad Sanuar, 28.