Mashrafe Mortaza announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game following the T20I series against Sri Lanka in April this year.
The veteran seamer’s retirement from the T20 format led to speculations that he could retire from the 50-over game as well. However, Nazmul Hasan, the Bangladesh Cricket Board president, squashed speculations related to Mortaza’s retirement by saying, “let me clear one thing, Mashrafe is just not a player but he is also our ODI captain,” to reporters a few days ago.
In an exclusive chat with Cricbuzz, Mortaza noted that he would walk into retirement life when he feels “he isn’t enjoying the game”.
The seasoned campaigner also shared his views on his working relationship with the present Bangladesh coach, Chandika Hathurusingha, and the steady progress made by the Asian country in the international circuit in recent times.
After the Sri Lanka tour when you decided to quit from T20s, there were speculations about your retirement from international cricket. Last week, the BCB president announced that the board doesn’t have any such plans. Your views…
First of all, you must analyse who is trying to speculate all these things and what is their purpose. It is clear to me, their motives, and it really does not matter as I am clear to my conscience. Secondly, I am sure that if I don’t enjoy the game that drives me to play international cricket, I will get some kind of a signal and I won’t be playing. Like say… if I am not enjoying the fitness camp [in Dhaka] or had felt that the load is a bit too much for me, it can be considered as a sign that my time is getting short.
To be honest, till date, these kind of things [to pack my baggage] did not occur to my mind. I am playing international cricket for the last 16 to 17 years and with [my] head held high. I don’t want to spoil my reputation trying to continue playing for six to 12 months even after knowing that my time is over. I can assure you that I have the knowledge and experience to understand when my time is over.
Still, the statement made by the BCB president must be reassuring…
I don’t take anything for granted. I will fight for my place in the team and make sure that I am picked on the basis of my performance. Firstly, I am a player more than anything else and it [has] remained the same since my debut and till date.
You talked about receiving “some kind of a signal” in relation to retirement. So, did you feel your time was up when you decided to quit T20 cricket? I mean the decision came all of a sudden…
Exactly. It took me 30 seconds to take that decision and once it was taken, there was no looking back. I went to the practice and during the nets somehow I felt that I am not enjoying T20 cricket and that is it.
Do you feel your ODI career could end in a similar fashion?
You never know. But one thing is for sure that I will be [the] first person to know that my time is over before anyone can point that out through their fingers.
How is it going in the fitness camp?
It is going on well. It will be a three-week camp and hopefully, everyone will try to improve their fitness. Still I feel it is a bit short as it would have been better if we had a six-week fitness camp, but as we have commitments, it’s all right.
Let’s come back to your captaincy. Your first two stints as the national captain didn’t end well, so wasn’t it difficult to accept the role when you were offered for the third time?
Honestly, I was quite reluctant when the position was offered considering it did not suit me in the opening two rounds. I always felt that it’s better just to play and all those things because of my bitter experience as national skipper [during my previous two stints]. It was my father who played a big part into taking the role as he made me realise that you cannot fight with your destiny.
Did you expect to be named captain for a third time?
Absolutely not, and it was beyond my imagination. Honestly, it came to me out of nowhere, but as I was saying, the experience of the first two phases left a major impact on my mind. It was not that I was not performing or the team was not doing well but somehow I just could not carry [the role] by getting injured. At that point, I was thinking let’s try [to] play till 2015 and see what happens next. Then suddenly it came to me in 2014 and the rest is history. At that point, my father told me that you could not show your leadership potential earlier, [this] is another chance and you should grab it as it came down your way. I am glad that I did follow his suggestion.
Do you feel that you had to sacrifice your bowling due to your captaincy?
No, I don’t think it that way because it is obvious that I have to take decisions being the captain, but my primary role is bowling, as I am picked as a bowler and I have to make sure that it is justified. I know I have to give a good start and when the ball is in my hand, I can always concentrate on it.
How is your relationship with head coach Hathurusingha? Because, on different occasions, it looked like there were a few issues, while at other times, it seemed you both were having a good working relationship…
I think we understand each other very well. When you work for a long time, it is obvious that speculations will come up at some point or the other and it was no different in our case as well. It is more common in our society. When something goes wrong, we often hear that they are not having good understanding. Anyone can make that statement because it is very easy to comment in that manner. It is hard to stop them because they don’t know the actual truth. When you are walking with someone for a long time, certainly there will be ups and downs.
There will be occasions when you will disagree and try to raise your points. But the most important thing is that whether you have faith on each other or not. Unless you have that understanding, it is difficult to get the result. If you go by the result[s], I don’t think we need to talk about it. There were some decisions when I wanted to do something in one way and he approved. Even if it misfired, he did not utter anything. There were times when he said ‘do it in this manner’ and I felt ‘ok let’s try it’. Whether it clicked or not, we just did not blame each other and probably that is the reason we were so successful. So it is not wise to create a so called rift between us.
So there are no problems…
We cannot have any personal problems because we don’t stay together. Our main motto is to try and see how the Bangladesh team can be benefitted the most. So it is not true at all that we have any kind of rift. What I like about him the most is that he gives his mind openly under the sun. it is good because it helps you to understand each other well and you are not scared of being a victim of backbiting. He tries to explain that certain things can be done in a certain manner and what I have done is that I have taken that positively because I felt that it is easier for him to understand certain things because he is viewing the things from outside. I tried to give my inputs and there are times when he took that while there were times when he did not. But you must understand he is the one who will do all the planning and I along with the team have full faith in him. We know we are humans and we can [make] errors but we are not ready to blame each other.
When did you first think that you have the potential to lead a side?
Still not [laughs]. I did not give it a thought [about captaincy] in my entire career and I never believed that I am capable of leading a side. For me, the most important thing is to play and it remained the same way. I learnt captaincy only after it came my way but you can also find some players whom we consider as ‘captain material’.
What makes you such a charismatic captain?
I don’t feel that way. I just want to remain the way [I am] and hope to fulfill my responsibilities. Probably because I try to make the dressing room very comfortable for all cricketers and it helps to get good results. I had seen from my experience how others felt to be treated as a stranger in the dressing room. I make sure that is not the case when I am in charge because you must understand that even the players who are entering the national dressing room for the first time must have some kind of potential that forced the selectors to select them.
If we seniors don’t welcome them with open heart and give them the confidence that they are here because of their capability, they won’t be able to perform. Giving that encouragement is as important as giving the space to seniors because being the senior members they also deserve some special treatment.
Do you feel the Bangladesh set-up gives that kind of assurance to our senior cricketers? You were extremely vocal about Mahmudullah’s inclusion for the ODIs after he was dropped from Bangladesh’s 100th Test match in Sri Lanka…
I firmly believe that you cannot buy experience. I don’t think we would have played in the semi-final of Champions Trophy if we did not have Mahmudullah. I always try to back the seniors as long as they are trying to fulfill their responsibilities. It is a different case whether you are in form or out of form, but for me, it is always whether you are willing to run those extra miles or not.
Do you regret being injured on many occasions?
Yes, earlier I did. But not now because I feel that it has been a great learning experience for me. Coming back from injury is not easy, so each time I returned, I was more determined to make my presence felt.
Do you feel Bangladesh have reached that next ladder where they can challenge the big cricketing nations or is it still a long way away?
I don’t think we have reached the next ladder but surely we are making good progress that suggests it won’t take long to reach there. Doing well abroad is all that matters because we have been quite successful at home and if you see our performance, we are catching up abroad as well.
Source: The Daily Ittefaq
