Stumped

Shahriar Nafees on Bangladesh’s ‘biggest’ achievement in Test cricket

Shahriar Nafees joins us following Bangladesh men’s historic Test-series win in Pakistan. The former Bangladesh opener, who is now Head of Operations at the Bangladesh Cricket Board, believes the series win is his country's biggest ever achievement in Test cricket.

Alison Mitchell, Clint Wheeldon and Sunil Gupta also reflect on the news that England Test coach Brendon McCullum will combine Test and white-ball coaching duties from January. They discuss how he may revitalise the side and discuss what it means for the Test team.

Image: Shahriar Nafees of Bangladesh leaves the field after his innings of 138 during day one of the First Test between Bangladesh and Australia played at the Fatullah Ground on April 9, 2006 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)

Duration:: 39m
Broadcast on:: 05 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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And goodness, Joe Root was someone who was inspired by Thorpe and didn't he perform in the second test against Sri Lanka, 200, something he'd never done before, and he became England's record century maker as well. Clint, I can tell you England are trying to climb up that Test Championship ladder. Ali, I'm Clint Wilden for the ABC in Perth, where we're still wondering what on earth happened between Scotland and Australia, traditionally slowing the power play of the Australians. They blasted one for 113 in their most recent C20 international and Travis' head couldness be. Oh, it was incredible to watch, wasn't it? He's 73 unbeaten in the power play. The highest ever, 16 boundaries, the most ever. He needed just 17 balls for his half century. He scored 18 off 25 deliveries and all that after we had much excitement for the rooster, Jake Fraser McGurk, unfortunately, outs for a duck on debut, the rooster. We had all that action going on and the controversy about Mark Wat's long ball. Who would have thought a battle with Scotland outside of the T20 World Cup could be so interesting? Well, I'm sitting here looking up the Farrakashvani in New Delhi, where the festive season is coming up in India, but also there's the start of the formal cricket season. With the delip trophy, it's the four-day red ball game, in which the precursor to the Ranji trophy, and of course, is like a mini selection for the tests coming up against Bangladesh, New Zealand, and of course, Australia and again, Clint, you'll be happy to hear that one of these games is being played in a small town called Anantapur in the south of India called Andhra Pradesh, where they have a green and bouncy wicket that is supposed to look like Australian wickets. So we're coming for Australia in the winter. That's good preparation. And you mentioned Bangladesh, Sunil, and we're going to be talking about that historic test series win that they had over Pakistan, and we'll be joined by Sharyena Fies, their former opener, who's now in charge of the international teams at the Bangladesh cricket board. But first, Baz Ball meets White Ball with the news that England test coach Brendan McCallum will combine test and White Ball coaching duties from January. McCallum's replacing Matthew Mott who stepped down after England's dismal T20 World Cup campaign where they arrived as defending champions. The same story is that the 50 over World Cup in India last November. Well, the England test team meanwhile have already wrapped up the series against Sri Lanka ahead of this week's third and final test. And that's part of an upward trend since McCallum took charge of the side, because before the New Zealander came on board with Captain Ben Stokes, England had won just one of their previous 17 tests. Their record since is 19 wins from 28. So Sunil and Clint, I just wonder what impact do you think this will have on England teams in all formats? Sunil, first start with you. Really, what he's brought to the test team is really what's happening in White Ball cricket. And the whole sense of fearlessness to go out there and express yourself. And that's what he's actually converted into what we have converted into this term called Baz Ball. Now, I think the one thing that he is going to bring is not just the fact that fearlessness and the way that he conducts that team. At the end of the day, what's the coach all about? It's about motivation, it's about saying, listen, I'm there behind you and I'm going to help you get along. So what he's been able to do, as you saw in that first test match against Sri Lanka Ali, is that he's also got people not to just go out there and bash the ball around, but to also, you know, put the anchor down like Joe Rood did in that second innings to take England to their win over Sri Lanka at Old Trafford. So now it's a question of modulating slightly what needs to be done. Of course, there'll be horses for courses. Everybody's not going to be in both teams. But I think really, and I know the jury's out on this in so many countries, one coach for everything or three different coaches to my mind, if the nucleus of the team is the same, I think the coach should be the same. I think that's exactly what's happened with England. If finally, as I said, seen the light and I think he's going to actually transform the white ball team as well. What does reduce the feeling of the two-tier makeup and the national cricket team, I think the test players and everyone else, and it's about to steal a line from somebody else. It's about the good vibes that he seems to be able to bring. And there's no doubt that that has an enormous impact. The quality of the players there is obvious. I think that he can, like he did for the test team, make them feel 10 feet tall. And I think that's a huge plus for England. The other advantage, I guess, with him coming in is having the ability to oversee the entire nation. It means that if he wants to transition the white ball team, he'll be able to do that with a better understanding of what's right across the country. And there's been a lot of calls for that alley that there needs to be some change. So I think that that's going to be a plus for him too. Interestingly enough, just the news coming through today that Matthew Mott has just signed up for three years to join the Sydney Sixers in the BBL. So as he steps out and we see this decision with Brendan McCollum coming in, always there's coach changes right around the world. Question to you, though. What do you think will be first up in the intray for Brendan McCollum when he officially starts the new role in the new year? Yeah, I think really it's going to be raising the game of the white ball team without dumping what he's created in the red ball team, you know, just keeping the elevation and the energy high on both. I mean, the white ball team, yes, does it need to shake up? Certainly is McCollum the man to change the whole atmosphere around a side? Well, definitely, because he's shown that he does that and that is what he does well. And I have to say that he timed his appointments well, doesn't he? Because he took over that red ball team when they were in the doldrums, that record of only one of 17 test matches. And now he takes on the white ball team when they're at this similarly low ebb as well. So in a sense, he can't really go wrong with Matthew Mott had the hard task coming into that white ball team when they were at the top of their game. And I think even at the time, Brenda McCollum, you know, would have looked at that and said, well, you know, there's not much I can do with that white ball team. Give me the test team because I can really see where I can make a difference. Well, now the white ball team are in the same situation. So yeah, it's going to be just elevating them, getting some results, but creating a fun atmosphere. And he wants cricket to be fun, doesn't he? Yeah, that's where I think his main focus will be. I can just hear him think when he was given his job of taking over. Well, all right, boys, the Marines are here, right? You can relax. I'm coming in, right? McCollum is here. You're like MacArthur. Yeah, absolutely. So picking up on what Clint said, what could this mean for McCollum's current test captain, Ben Stokes, and the current white ball captain, Joe, just Butler, who oversaw that debacle in India. Drokes has been described as his appointment as an unbelievable move, but could he end up being even more international cricket on a McCollum? Of course, if his knee holds. And then, of course, the final question, how will he and Butler get along? Yeah, I'll start with Butler. And maybe that was an answer to Clint's first question. What's top of his intray is establish that rapport with Josh Butler, because that's going to be key to the success of the side. For Ben Stokes, I mean, interestingly, it might mean that possibly his career, his test career goes on even longer, because I think there was a thought that perhaps McCollum would go until the end of the ashes in Australia, almost if this was a relatively short term appointment that he's done, his work with the test team, he gets them to wear it into a healthy place. And then he can step away with them, hopefully having had one an away ashes series. But now this Red Ball contract means that he goes through until the White Ball contract means he goes through until 2027. So maybe that means the McCollum and Stokes partnership in the test team will stretch on through that time as well. Injury permitting with Stokes, and he's coming back from a hamstring injury at the moment. But yeah, he is contracted now through until the end of the World Cup in 2027. So what that does do is gives everybody stability, gives the test team stability through until that period as well. So maybe that will mean that we see Ben Stokes push through until not just the next ashes, but another one after that as well. Yeah, I mean, we saw Ben Stokes come out of retirement to play in the World 50 over World Cup in India. I mean, that would probably be a surprising move that he comes back to White Ball cricket under McCollum. And you get a unified captaincy and coach scenario, but never say never in this game. What about Australia, though, Clint? Because, yeah, someone was advocating for the one coach fits all approach that England have now gone to. I mean, they've had split roles for a while. It famously really didn't work when Andy Flower was in charge of the test team and Ashley Giles, the White Ball team, because so much focus was on test. Giles never had the players that he wanted at his disposal. And yeah, the Aussies, they explored separate coaches for different formats, but Andrew McDonald is in sole charge. But, noticeably, though, he doesn't go to every single match or every single series, does he? You need a good deputy. You do. And that's part of the structure that he'll have to find, Brendan McCollum. You need to anoint your deputies to coach the side to give you a break. And we've seen that even though congestion has ease a little bit, you need the left tenants who can take over in certain series. We've seen that with Andrew McDonald. He's given Andre Borovec, an opportunity in the five match, the T20 series. That was late in 2023. Michael DeVinuto, early in 2023, took over for a T20 series against South Africa. And you could even go back before that when Justin Langer was involved. And I know that Darren Lehman spoke quite often that he probably spent too long, you know, 300 plus days away from home being involved. When he was the senior coach of both the one day, the white ball and the T20 and the test that he spent too long and probably wore him down. And he told Justin Langer to make sure he took some breaks. So Langer did that as well. And there were several white ball series when Andrew McDonald took over from Justin Langer back in those days. You know, take your hands off the wheel, avoid, burn out when possible. So I think that is something that Brendan McCollum is going to have to be very aware of to make sure you've got the deputies who can do those series just to give you a break. Yeah, that's what happened in India as well, Harry, with Raoul Dravid because BBS Lakshman used to go on quite a few of the white ball tours and give him a break, exactly what Flint was talking about. But speaking here, the T20 World Cup final, Butler said, I think that the nature of the schedule of English cricket makes it near enough impossible for one man or woman to do the whole job. I think we play so much cricket and have so much traveling and time away. I think it's sort of becoming untenable really to have one coach. Now, here is the captain of the white ball team giving a somewhat different look at this whole one coach scenario. So what do you think? Is it really sustainable to have this one man in charge or, as Finn said, he gives himself a break by having a deputy? Yeah, I suspect we'll probably see a bit of that, depending on are you moving up towards the start of a ODI World Cup, the start of a T20 World Cup? I think a coach is likely to sort of dip in and out of some tours depending on what is the priority at the moment. When I mentioned about him establishing at Rapour with Joss Butler, maybe the first thing on his intray will be determining whether Joss Butler is the right captain to continue to lead in the white ball game as well. But yeah, there is a lot of cricket. I think it's maybe less overlapping next year, but England, we'll play a lot. They go to India, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. They host West Indies, India and South Africa. 2026 starts with the end of the ashes and then a six game white ball series and a T20 World Cup, which ends the first week of March. So yeah, having a good deputy will be pretty important to Brendan McCallum. I just wanted to clint like whether, who else would you have put up for the job? Because of course, when a vacancy becomes apparent, all sorts of people asked about it and Ricky Ponting and Owen Morgan even were asked in the media about whether they would be interested and both of them distanced themselves pretty quickly. Was there anyone else that you had thought of who might have gone for it? That is a really good question, Ali. There definitely would have been other really strong candidates out there and off the top of my head, without even having to look past my own state, there'll be a nation that one day will come for Adam Vojas here. And you could have hardly have had more success since he's taken over from Justin Langer with both the WA State team and the Per Scorches. He's currently chasing a fourth successive shield title. He's had one day success on a number of occasions, the Scorches, we know how successful they've been in the T20 competition, the BBL. There'd be others around the world with similar credentials if the ECB had decided they wanted to split the roles and look elsewhere. I reckon and understandably so that Ricky Ponting and Owen Morgan with what they've got, they get to dip their toe in the world of coaching without the all-encompassing nature of looking after one of the national teams. I can understand why they're very comfortable doing what they're doing at the moment and they get to spend some time in the broadcast box as well. Exactly. Sunil, just to wrap up, his first assignment as White Bull head coach because he'll start in January will be a one-day series against India in India before the champions trophy in February. So he's not going to have much time to prepare because the test side finished the year in his homeland of New Zealand. I just wonder how quickly he'll be judged on results and how quickly he'll be able to get results. I've been looking at Bretton McCollum sitting on the balcony with his England team. Let me tell you, in college we have this word called "cooled." He is the epitome of cool. He just sits there in his dark glasses. He doesn't have a pen. He doesn't have a pencil. He doesn't have a notebook. He doesn't have a laptop. He has nothing and the team performs. Now, what do you put that down to? You put it out with something, right? There is not a personal opinion. But I think the most important thing that you can say with that lying body language, "Hey, I trust you guys." And the moment, any team feels, anybody feels, whether it's in a corporation or whether it's in a team or anywhere else, "Hey, this guy trusts me, so I've got to deliver." It's more than half the battle won. And I think that's exactly what he's going to bring to the party. He says, "Hey, guys, you've placed so much white ball cricket, right? What are you talking about? Go there and perform, and they perform." You just said it one out of, what, 17 tests and 19 out of 28? Well, I mean, the results speak to themselves. So I'd love, I'm absolutely looking forward to seeing him as a white ball team. I know that T20 World Cup coming up, I am looking forward to that. Yep, he will pump them up. That is for sure. Now, you are listening to Stumped on the BBC World Service. It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. At Blunile.com, you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from Blunile's jewelry experts who are on hand 24/7 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online. For a limited time, get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code listen@blunile.com. That's $50 off with code listen@blunile.com. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linkedin, the place to be to be. I'm Alison Mitchell and if you've missed anything from Stumped, then you can download and subscribe to the podcast via your usual podcast provider. And you can check us out on YouTube as well. Head to the BBC World Service YouTube channel. On last week's show, we heard from England's been a Lindsay Smith who earlier this year earned an England recall after a five-year absence. And now she's going to next month's T20 World Cup in the UAE. It was pretty tough. I mean, you doubt yourself. You doubt whether you're ever going to be good enough or if you can do it in an England shirt. But I just went away and kind of tried to enjoy my cricket again. Not put too much pressure on myself and just enjoy what I'm doing and going out there with teammates and putting in good performances and done that consistently. So I'm over the moon to be back in an English shirt. And hopefully I can do things a lot better this time around. From the BBC World Service, this is Stumped on ABC and Pat Heshbany. Well, Further History made for Bangladesh's men this week with a first ever test series win over Pakistan. We talked on last week's show about their historic win in the first test, but the Tigers followed up with a six-week hit win in the second, having been 26 for six in the first innings as well. It was a remarkable recovery with bat and then ball and Bangladesh's batters Julie chased 185 in Royal Pindy to seal what is only the third time and they've won a test series overseas. Former Bangladesh Open Asharina Fies joins us on Stunt. Shari, great to have you along. Just put into words the significance of this win for Bangladesh cricket. It's amazing. In my book, since Bangladesh has started playing test cricket and international cricket, this has been the biggest achievement so far. You want to be one of the best in test cricket. Personally, I believe if you play the test cricket well, you will play the other form as well. Since we have gained the test status, yes, there has been a lot of questions, there has been a lot of inconsistency in our performances, but for the last few years, I think we have improved a lot and we have started winning test matches home and away, but nothing can be compared to this win. Going to Pakistan, one of the better sites in test cricket, you go there, you win a first test when Pakistan has put up a big total and then you hold them out and you chase them down. That was fine, but what happened in the next test, we cannot put into right words, 26 or 6 and then such a brilliant partnership by Leton and Miras and then bowling out. It's amazing. It's one of the biggest day of my life as a former creator and now working for Bangladesh cricket board. I'm pretty sure it has been one of the greatest successes of a lot of players. Just what has the reaction been like at home and given as well that this has come against the backdrop of the recent social unrest in the country? People are very happy. If you know the history of Bangladesh cricket, you will definitely know cricket is one of the very rare things which can bring all the people from all the parts of this country. Yes, we have been having some trouble days in the last few months and the whole country is in a rebuilding process. Whatever the change has happened, it was done by the youth, the students, the protest, everything and the youth of Bangladesh loves the game and they love Bangladesh cricket team and they love Bangladesh cricket. I'm pretty sure this win has brought a lot of joy, a lot of courage, a lot of hope for everyone and as Bangladesh cricket did previously, it has brought the nation together and the whole nation is very happy. I was following the game in Raoul Pindy especially the second test match. Exactly as you said, that 10-week it went in the first and then after that to go on and win the series being 26-6. What did you feel like? I mean, you've been in the Bangladesh team for so many years. I'm sure you remember when India was touring, I think it was last year and you had India down at 46-7 and India were chasing about 140 to win and we went on to win as it so happened, a very unlikely win. Did you feel, "Oh God, it's going to happen again and we're going to crumble." Well, did you feel there's a new steal inside this team especially after that first test win? The best thing happened in this series, in my eyes. You see, in a one-day match or a T20 match, there's a limitation of overs and limitation of time and Bangladesh has proved that they're one of the better sides in T20s and ODIs but in this format test, we haven't been that consistent and test for your character, test for your skills, test for your courage, test for your patients. Sometimes in like five to seven years back, what we have seen, we have played one innings very well like batting and bowling and sometimes what happened in the second innings we suffered. But in the last four or five years, these boys who have been playing in the side, they have shown significant amount of improvement and some of the test matches where we were just this short win at test match. The best thing happened in this test match, the boys were very calm, they were very confident, they were very patient and they were very professional and I must say nothing wrong to Pakistanis side. One of the most important things happened in this test match we the Bangladeshi boys looked much pitter than the other team. So the boys in that hit, they were fit, they were fresh, the bowlers were charging in, you have seen all the fast roller and their pace never went down. It was very consistent, mudshu karaheen scoring a 191 run and straight away going to the field, lit on the 130 or and keeping. So they looked fresh and fit, they were confident, they were very focused and they were very professional. The Pakistan team in Pakistan is a very dangerous and a very successful side but dominating the game for four innings is for five days. It never happened before and history is a thing you can create, you can create a lot of new things and it will definitely give a boost to Bangladesh cricket and I'm pretty sure that this is just the beginning of a new year. One of the great things to watch is fast bowling and cricket and Bangladesh hasn't been known for fast bowlers. Tell us a little bit more, you mentioned it then but no hit Rana who's just been outstanding in the two test matches, the highlights we've seen and not just because of the pace that he was generating, it's everything. He seems to have genuine cricket intellect as well. The way he got out Shana sued was a beauty of a delivery. What's the mood about him at the moment and what he can go on to achieve? I'm a proud Bangladesh now that I can tell one of our guys is clicking 148, 49, 150, 52 in our own regular basis. We have to go back a little bit of into history. Masha Timorta has been one of our biggest fast bowling superstars and after watching them, a new bunch of fast bowlers came. We have seen a small progress in this era. You need heroes, you need superstars, you need icons to create new superstars. That has been the process but if I can tell you exactly what happened, Bangladesh cricket board in two to three years back, we changed some of our policies. Bangladesh has been a dominant spin bowling attack. Yes, our spinners have been doing really well but we knew that to win matches, test matches regularly to win overseas, we need fast bowlers. Five to six years back, our selectors started giving fast bowlers an opportunity. When I was playing even in five, seven years back, we have seen that we have played two fast bowlers and three spinners. That has been a regular setup for Bangladesh. If you go back from last four or five years, the selectors started picking up three fast bowlers. That was the start of our fast bowling coming up. Then what happened in three years back, Bangladesh cricket board decided that in our domestic cricket, which domestic first-class cricket, which starts from October and ends in December, that is our winter and that is one of the perfect season where you can keep long grasses. We started keeping six to eight mm grasses in our wickets in first-class cricket and as British people, you might be very happy to hear that we introduced jukeball. What happened was in Cucabora, after 10, 12 overs, the scene goes down and our wickets doesn't support the fast bowlers because the scene goes down. Yes, the Cucabora has changed their scene but it still goes down so the spinners come into play and even in our winter, it's not winter like April of UK. You get significant amount of heat in winter as well. What used to happen are fast bowlers used to start bowling for their 10, 12 overs, 15 overs and spinners all day long. But after we changed, we took this decision that we are going to, no matter what, we are going to keep the six to eight mm grasses in the wickets. We have introduced jukeball forward. We have two fast-class tournaments. One is 18s one and one is four teams. In 18s tournament, we introduced jukeball. All of a sudden, the team started to peak three to four fast bowlers and that gave a lot of encouragement to the fast bowlers. 20 overs a day, the fast bowlers started bowling 70 overs a day. They got a lot of encouragement, they were like, they wanted to bowl more, they were swinging the ball, the ball was hard. We have heard a lot of criticism from our best men because they were not happy. They said, we cannot score as it's been difficult but the bowlers were encouraged and in the national team, we had the task in Mustafis, we had Shoriful, they were performing. So the young fast bowlers, they were very encouraged and then all of a sudden from four fast bowlers, we started having a fast bowling pool of 12 to 14 fast bowlers. One of our key fast bowlers is injured, he's not playing and we have a different setup in the one-day wide bowl. So all of a sudden, we have started getting a lot of fast bowlers because they were very encouraged to bowl. The passments started to be more focused on betting. All we have 10 players who only play test cricket. So even they were facing the deal was they were having much more difficulties but their technique got better, they started scoring some rounds. And Nahidrana, he plays first-class cricket regularly and he's a product of our very strong under age development program and he's a role talent. He just came from nowhere, the last two or three years, bumless cricket, what has taken a lot of care of this kid and like we will not say that we have done so much, he's a role talent, he is like just Vini BDC came, played and conquered. One small question, Shariya. Yes. So you beat in Pakistan and Pakistan, right? And now there's India coming up, right? And remember what happened last time I just told you when India came to Bangladesh, what do you feel about that India tour? Do you think you have a chance? Yes, we want to keep our pizza into the ground because India is the toughest side to beat. But I'm pretty sure that what happened was after last two test match cycles, we sat together and we wanted to make some changes in a mindset. So what we believe is, if you look at the top things in the world, like four top things, if you say big four, that is India, Australia, England, and there's a competition between South Africa and New Zealand. So these big four, if you look at their dominating the whiteboard cricket, but they're dominating test match crickets, I personally believe that they dominate test match cricket, that's why whiteboard becomes so easy for them. So we started planning that we must become top big five because if you can dominate in test match cricket, then your other format will definitely come into play and we have performed pool in last two cycles. So for this significant test match cycle, our target is to become one of the middle side so that we can finish number five, number six. It gives us a very good platform to play much more better in the next coming days. This is number one. We developed a significant training program. So before our when our whiteboard players were playing T20s against Zimbabwe and in World Cup, we structured a two months intensive program for the Redboard crickets. So we picked all the Redboard crickets. We put them in a special camp. They have been training for last two months. We tried to recreate the conditions of Pakistan. We had different set of coaching stuff. They will only play practicing Redboard, Redboard, Redboard. And everything came into play because the players played well. So now going to India, it will be definitely a difficult series. But one thing I will we will be very confident because if they India gives us a tiny wicket, we have got good spinners who can take wickets. If they give us seeming wicket, we have now the pace and the stream and everything, bit of everything. So we are confident, but it will be very difficult. I'm interested briefly in your leg spinner as well. Rich Shaddha Sane really enjoyed watching him, a commentate on a number of his games at the T20 World Cup. He's going to be going to the Big Bash as well. There's only the second Bangladesh player there. But what are his prospects? Can you see him moving into the test team? Yeah. So you know, our head coach, Anneka, after seeing when he was there for the first time, he always wanted to have a lot of leg spinners. But what happens is leg spin is a very difficult thing. Traditionally, Bangladesh has been a country where we have produced a lot of left and spinners. So we have a lot of heroes. We have Saki, we have Rafiq, we have Abdurajar. So left and spin is our thing, you know, and it was very difficult because you never had those role models. But we always wanted to have leg spinners because nowadays, the flat, we catch the big leg spinners. The risk spinners can be part of big role. The first thing goes to our last selection panel because no matter what, they always speak through Shaddha in our age level programs and 18 programs and HP programs. So we have beneath national team. We have got a Tigers program where the national team left out and the format players practice. We've got a HP, which is under 23 and we have got under 90. So in HP, Risha worked really hard. He was not getting enough opportunities because it's a dominant of left and spinners and the fingers spinners. But the selectors, Risha hardly played domestic cricket. He was picked by the teams, but he never got match time. But the selectors always kept him the camp so that he was confident. So he was, for the last three years, he has been in every camp. He was practicing, practicing and all of her, he was getting some games. He was not getting regular games in domestic, but we make sure that when we're at his story, when our HP is storing, we gave him game time. And he is very confident. He's hard-working, and he also worked hard. So he got, when we wanted a leg spinner, he was one of our better legs spinners. So without playing a lot of domestic cricket, we just kept blind faith on him and we gave him a go in the national team. And we gave a lot of mental support. Risha was one of the guys who knew seven, eight months back that he was playing going to play the World Cup. So this is how we wanted to give him the confidence. I think in the month of October, we say to him, no matter what, we have eight games to go before the World Cup. No matter what, we are going to play the World Cup. So it's your time. You're going to get match time. So be confident, work hard. So the national team management, the previous selection committee, they gave full support to him, and he worked hard and he was confident and he started getting success. And one of the reasons he got success in bowling, because he worked on his batting as well. So whenever he's not bowling, he's contributing with the bat as well. So he's a very good prospect. And it shows like he hardly played domestic cricket. Now he's going to play a big bash league. And he's being picked in a lot of franchise every year. So now we have to, we have to protect him from, you know, overall bowling in foreign domesticity tournament. So we are very, very happy. We are very happy that he's got a leg spinner. And we're very happy that he's a very good package. And you know, he works really hard on his game. He started practicing on the Go mentees and the flippers on the technique. So he will be a very good prospect for Bangladesh in the coming future. His fascinating listening to Shariah. Thank you so much for being with us on Stumped. And yeah, keep enjoying that winning feeling. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, Alison. Thank you, Sneel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So that was Shariah and her fees, former Bangladesh, opener and in charge of cricket operations at the Bangladesh cricket board. Well, that's what we've got time for on this week's Stumped. So I'll say thanks to Clint Wilden and Sunil Gupta and to all of you. And we'll talk to you again next week. Until then, bye for now. Stumped is a BBC sport production for the BBC World Service in association with ABC and Akash Vani. This podcast is brought to you by E-Harmony. The dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. Why doesn't E-Harmony allow copy and paste in first messages? Because you are unique, and your conversations should reflect that. E-Harmony wants you to find someone who will get you. How are you going to know who gets you? If people see you the same generic conversation starters, they message everyone else. Conversations that actually help you get to know each other. Imagine that. Get who gets you on E-Harmony. Sign up today. 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