It was the 39th over of the Bangladesh innings yesterday when a sudden delay did not register with anyone in the press box. But what developed moments later had the potential to temper yesterday’s fantastic achievement.
Shakib Al Hasan, eight runs short of his fifth one-day hundred, stopped bowler Daryl Tuffey in his run-up because people were moving behind the sight-screen at the press box end.
The Bangladesh captain grew frustrated by the minute as the on-field umpires and the ground-staff manning the sight-screen failed to communicate with the crowd behind the bowler’s arm.
When even the walkie-talkie wielding security men failed to solve the problem, Shakib took matters into his own hand, stomping towards the boundary and gesturing to the offending man, (apparently in a white shirt) told him in no uncertain terms where to go.
Usually such a cool customer, Shakib’s emotions seeped over perhaps due to the magnitude of the occasion and the pressure of batting on 92.
However, this is the sort of farcical delay that one often sees at grounds in the subcontinent but the two galleries behind the sight-screen at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium are often kept off-limits to the paying public.
Perhaps it was the pressure of the large crowds waiting outside the Mirpur venue that forced the BCB to let them into the buffer zone but these things must be managed properly.
Shakib later said that he wasn’t irate but wanted the game to go on. “I didn’t get angry or anything, but the game was stopped for quite a while then,” he said to reporters after the match.
Shakib, though, must also look to manage his emotions on all situations, something that he is usually so good at.
