A special afternoon with Yusuf Babu and Gordon Greenidge on Bangladesh's cricket history

It was an afternoon filled with interesting stories about Bangladesh's cricket history as former national team cricketer Yusuf Babu discussed his new book 'Eye on the ball' at Shahabuddin Park on Thursday. 

Joining Babu was West Indies legend and former national team coach Sir Gordon Greenidge, and former cricketers Shakil Kasem and Ishtiaque Ahmed in an event that took the audience back to the early days of Bangladesh cricket. 

"In the book, I try to give readers a glimpse of how cricket was back then and the challenges we faced. We had to play knowing that there wasn't much money in the game and it was almost impossible to make a career out of it.

But still, representing your country meant everything," Babu said.  

Sir Gordon Greenidge was in good spirits even joked he never saw Yusuf Babu play, so he know "if he was any good ".  

He also spoke about his fond memories of coaching Bangladesh and how the players were. 

But he also felt that the Test status came "too early for Bangladesh. It was men against boys in the first few years and the team wasn't ready." 

Greenidge informed that he will be back in Bangladesh later this year to "visit his friends". 

Bangladesh's first superstar cricketer, Mohammad Ashraful also was present among the audience of around 50 people in the open stage event. 

Ishtiaque Ahmed expressed how getting Test status really helped Bangladesh financially and helped its cricket infrastructure develop. 

However, he felt that "more could be done to spread cricket across the country and develop the game further to make Bangladesh a powerhouse in cricket."

Eventually though, the talk of T20 cricket came and Shakil Kasem said, "To really develop your game, you need to have a strong basic. Batters these days are more focused on power hitting but you have to have the basics in place to really succeed."

Everyone expressed their concerns over the growing number of T20 leagues and how it has diluted cricket, but they felt that Tests being played in more bowler-friendly pitches were still exciting and a would keep the game in good health going forward.