Mashrafe Mortaza to be honored by Sera Bangali award

Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Mortaza is set to receive the Sera Bangali award on the coming Saturday. The prestigious award is given by the Kolkata’s daily Bengali newspaper Anandabazar Patrika. The newspaper daily has named the Bangladeshi ODI skipper as the Sera Bangali person of the year. As per the reports in the Dhaka Tribune, Mashrafe Mortaza will be present to collect the honor on Saturday.

Talking about the ceremony, Anandabazar Patrika arranges an award function every year where they acknowledge the good work done by a Bengali person in the field of sports or any other sector of expertise. Prior to Mashrafe Mortaza, former Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar had received the honor back in the year 2007. In the year 2012, veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan had also bagged the award.

Among the Indian cricketers, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has been a proud recipient of the honor. Veteran Bengal cricketer Manoj Tiwary has also received the award. In a conversation with the Dhaka Tribune, Mashrafe expressed his happiness over receiving the accolade. He noted that each and every honor matters to him and receiving the honor from an Indian newspaper is very special.

“Every award and recognition is special for me and to receive the award for the best Bengali person from an Indian newspaper is something special. I am looking forward to receiving the award,” Mashrafe quoted.

Recent times

Talking about the recent form, Mashrafe Mortaza recently led the Bangladesh team to the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. This was the first instance when the Bangladeshi team made it to the semi-finals of a major ICC global event. On the personal front, Mortaza has been performing consistently. Despite that, there have been questions surfacing the media about his retirement. Mashrafe recently politely declined any rumors of him retiring sometime soon.