Former Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah has said that no cricketer sacrificed his batting position as much as he did, revealing that although he preferred to bat at No. 4, he rarely voiced it and ended up batting wherever the team management asked him to, reports Cricbuzz.
Mahmudullah, known to be a shy personality, opened up about the issue during the podcast Simply Sayeed. He revealed that he often found it difficult to refuse requests from former national captain Mashrafe Mortaza when his batting position was altered.
"Deep inside I wanted to bat at number four or five. But I never raised my voice like that. I stayed quiet. If the opportunity comes, then I want to grab it," Mahmudullah, who has retired from international cricket, said on the podcast aired on Thursday.
"Because over the years, Alhamdulillah, the amount of sacrifices I made in terms of batting position for the Bangladesh team, I think nobody did it.
"I did have a preference, but I had to sacrifice. Alhamdulillah, I am not complaining about anything. I was happy that if I could do what the team wanted and if the team produced results and did well, that was fine. I did not complain.
"(For example) Mashrafe bhai would come and say to me, 'Riyad, you are batting at four today - tomorrow you will bat at five.' I would say, 'Alright, okay.' If I scored runs at five he would say, 'Alright, today bat at six.' I would say, 'Okay, fine. If you say so, no problem.' In this way my batting order changed quite often."
Mahmudullah said that the biggest lesson of his cricketing career came from Bangladesh's heartbreaking loss to India in the 2016 T20 World Cup, when he and Mushfiqur Rahim were unable to finish a chase in Bengaluru despite being in a winning position.
"I do not know (what happened in that game against India). That was tragic. It was very heartbreaking. I think it was extremely heartbreaking. We cried on the ground. When we got back to the hotel we cried. Me, Mushfiqur Rahim, we all cried. Many other members were crying as well because we were so close to beating India.
"But personally, in my life that was a very life-changing lesson for me. You drag it to the last ball and you finish it off. At that particular moment I was thinking that if we just hit one boundary we would win. To be honest, that was dumb."
Mahmudullah also revealed that he felt deeply hurt after being informed that he was not permitted to train at the Mirpur ground after being dropped ahead of the 2023 World Cup.
Although he was eventually recalled for the tournament and finished as Bangladesh's highest run-scorer, the experienced batter admitted he was disheartened by what had happened six months earlier.
"Let me tell a small story that no one knows. Since I told you that today I will say many things that people do not know. One day I was a contracted player with the BCB at that time. I went to Mirpur for practice. Since national team players usually use the indoor wickets, I went to the academy side. I asked them to give me a wicket so that I could bat a little. They said, 'Bhai, there is no permission.'
"I said, 'No permission?' This had never happened before. Even if I was not a contracted player or for any other reason, why would there not be permission? They said, 'No, from the upper level it has been said that you are not allowed to practise here.' I just lowered my head and left. I did not tell this to anyone.
"I just lowered my head and left that day. I did not practise anymore. I believe strongly in Allah's plan. I just tried in my own way. I practised as much as I could in quiet places. I did not stay around much, especially when the team practised. When the team practised, I was not there at that time. I would come at another time. I would ask beforehand when the team would practise so that I could do my work quietly and then leave.
"Then again shocking news came before the World Cup - a 26-member team was announced and I was not there. I was probably the second-leading run scorer for the Bangladesh team in that year.
"I was not there for those three series. It was about five or six months. The World Cup was probably in September. A lot happened in between. Then I came back in the New Zealand series, which probably the team management did not want at that time. But by force, a lot of players failed, so I had to come back. Alhamdulillah, in the first match I scored 49 or something. Then I got into the World Cup.
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