The scoresheet of the first India-Bangladesh Test match has this line, ‘Sadagopan Ramesh bowled Bikash Ranjan Das 58’. Incidentally that was Bangladesh’s first Test and started November 10 2000, in Dhaka. It was also current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s first game as captain in a Test match.
Well since then much water has flown down both the Padma and the Ganges in the last 19 years. The then 18-year-old fast bowler, Bikash Ranjan Das who had come into the Test squad showing a lot of promise, today is a forgotten man. Das has converted to Islam and is now better known Mahmudur Rahman Rana and currently works as a manager of a bank in Dhaka.
The great cricket-writer Neville Cardus used to say, ‘scoreboard is a donkey’. Well for Das alias Mahmudur Rahman Rana it is not so. Because of the stats that have been maintained, he has been invited to the historical pink ball Test between India and Bangladesh which will be hosted by the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
To make the pink ball Test a memorable affair, the Sourav Ganguly-led Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has invited the entire squads of both India and Bangladesh who were part of the first Test between the two countries. Both the teams will be felicitated. So after fading into oblivion quickly, Rana now is back again in the limelight.
“I for a moment never thought that I would be a part of international cricket once more,” Mahmudur Rahman Rana has been quoted as saying by a leading English daily in Dhaka. “I just can’t wait for the moment when I will get to see ‘Dada’ (Sourav Ganguly) again. I don’t even know whether he remembers me. It has been such a long time,” Rana added.
But there is no doubt that nostalgia and excitement has affected Rana to the hilt. He is counting the ticking minutes ahead of boarding the flight November 21 and being present at the Eden Gardens the next day. “No doubt, I am very elated that I have been invited. I never thought I would be part of such a memorable occasion. Also I have lost touch with the Bangladesh Cricket Board… So I never thought I would get an invitation to this game,” Mahmudur Rahman Rana said.
The inaugural India-Bangladesh match was the first and last Test for Rana (Das at that time) as a back problem ended his career prematurely. Today he sits behind a huge table playing with figures and currencies rather than a cricket ball.
However, for once he will again have a feel of the green. Thanks to the scoresheet on which his name will forever be etched.
PNN