Mashrafe Mortaza to contest in the Bangladesh election on a ruling party ticket

Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s One-Day International captain will contest the election the upcoming election on a ticket from the ruling party as confirmed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A photograph of the 35-year-old bowling all-rounder, who enjoys a rockstar status in the cricket insane nation Bangladesh alongside the Prime Minister appeared on the front page of all the newspapers.

Mortaza is without a doubt one of the greatest players to have represented the Tigers. In order to extend his career and play the World Cup 2019, the veteran has quit the shortest format of the game and last played a Test match in 2009. He was last seen in the Asia Cup 2018, captaining the team where Bangladesh lost to the eventual champions India in the final.

It is expected that he will call it a day from international cricket after the World Cup next year. A spokesperson of Hasina had given Mashrafe the “green light” from the PM, who is seeking a third consecutive term in office on 30th December.

PM expects him to maintain the balance

“We expect him to keep the balance between his playing career and politics. However, a word is yet to come from the present captain of the ODI team on his running for the Awami League but on active players, there has been no moratorium that has been placed on trying their hand at politics,” the party spokesperson was quoted as saying by Times Now.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) spokesperson Jalal Yunus confirmed the same and said that contesting in the election is a constitutional right and that they have no objections with it. “To run in an election is his constitutional right. If he wants to exercise these rights, we have no issue,” he said. 

Mashrafe has played 199 ODIs and bagged 252 wickets at an average of just under 30. He also played 65 matches in the longer format of the game.

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