2 days Ago By Firoz Mirza
CHENNAI: Posted as a Naik with Bangladesh Army, Showkat Ali of Habiganj district in Sylhet division, Bangladesh was not fond of cricket. Instead, he liked football. But his two sons among five siblings wanted to be cricketers.
Shaker Ali, the eldest of the two, had already started playing cricket at the district level and his younger brother Jaker was secretly following him. Incidentally, a football coach from England arrived there to train local kids in an academy. Showkat immediately got Jaker admitted to the academy, hoping his youngest child would become a footballer.
Destiny, however, had something else in store both for Showkat and Jaker. Years later, Jaker is in India on his maiden Test call-up and can only imagine how proud his father would be to see him playing for Bangladesh in the longest format of the game. Showkat passed away due to a kidney ailment seven years ago but not before watching Jaker climbing up the ladders laying a solid foundation for himself in the world of cricket.
"My father would have been immensely proud watching Jaker play for the national team," Shakila Boby, Jaker's elder sister, told this daily. A journalist with a local newspaper, Shakila has witnessed the journeys of brothers Shaker and Jaker from close quarters. In between Shaker changed his path but Jaker stood his ground.
"I still remember vividly how Jaker asked me to speak to father to let him play cricket. At that time, he was at the football academy but was accompanying Shaker for cricket matches as the 12th man of the team. Father relented and allowed him to continue his passion," she reminisced.
Like his elder brother, Jaker also started keeping wickets but it was his skills with the willow that drew the crowd. "Despite being in class 5, he used to compete in U-14 age group competitions and thrash bowlers much elder to him. Gradually, Shaker got busy with studies and later on with his job so I used to accompany Jaker to cricket grounds.
It was his selection for the famed Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) from 1000 aspirants that convinced my father that Jaker would one day play for the country. Father saw him playing in the U-19 World Cup and other domestic tournaments." Jaker made his T20I debut at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
He has played 17 T20Is so far but has not featured in an ODI or Test to date. He was named in the Test squad for the India tour after his 174 against Pakistan A in Islamabad. In 49 first-class matches, he averages 41.
47 with four hundreds. Yet to play a Test, Jaker incidentally started cricket with the red ball. "Most kids start with the tennis ball but Jaker started with the red ball.
In fact, he scored his first century in the longer format when he scored 102 off 116 for BCB U-16 against Madhya Pradesh U-16 team at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium back in 2013. We always knew he is made for the red-ball cricket and if he gets a chance in India, he will definitely perform for the team," believed Shakila. Selector Hannan Sarkar also looked convinced with Jaker's abilities in the Test cricket.
"We picked Jaker Ali as a middle-order batter. Jaker can be a useful player in the longer version if you consider his record in domestic first-class cricket. He played a splendid innings in Pakistan recently, batting for a long time.
This is what kept Jaker a step ahead," Sarkar told journalists soon after the squad announcement for the India tour. It can well turn out to be a golden opportunity for Jaker as India is one of his most visited countries as a cricketer. "He has travelled to India several times.
He visited Madhya Pradesh, Chennai, and Delhi among other cities with the BKSP age-group teams. It will only help him if he makes his Test debut," signed off Shakila..
