Mosharraf’s chance to make positive headlines

For domestic heavyweight Mosharraf Hossain to return to the Bangladesh ODI squad, it needed a by-chance intervention from Venkatapathy Raju.

The former India spinner was in Dhaka to conduct a ten-day spin bowling camp in mid-August. After watching left-arm spinner Mosharraf, Raju spoke about him to Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, who brought him into the preliminary squad midway into its pre-season training camp. In less than a month, he is in line to play international cricket after eight years.

“[Venkatapathy] Raju said I have variation and extra bounce,” Mosharraf told ESPNcricinfo after joining the preliminary squad. “It gave me confidence. In our country, there is more emphasis on the negative parts of a cricketer. You can even find fault in [Muttiah] Muralitharan if you are looking for it. They look for problems here. But there is about 90% positive in a cricketer. Raju focused on the things that work in my bowling. He said that I have a good overall record. He said I was unlucky and that I should be playing [at the top level]. ”

For someone who has taken more than 300 first-class wickets, been a proven match-winner in the Dhaka Premier League, and the Man of the Match in a Bangladesh Premier League final, this was just reward, but perhaps a bit of luck was at play too: here was someone who couldn’t break into the national team for a long time despite being a regular top performer in domestic cricket, but he gets unexpectedly and immediately called up on the word of a foreign coach visiting on a very stint. Then again, Mosharraf’s career had already been marked by misfortune, with two major incidents almost derailing it.

The first was a few months after his international debut in 2008, when he joined the now-defunct rebel Indian Cricket League as part of the Dhaka Warriors team. …

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