Mashrafe Bin Mortaza Life History

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza born 5 October 1983) is a Bangladeshi international cricketer and politician who is the former captain in all three formats of the game (Test, Twenty20 and One Day Internationals) for the Bangladesh national cricket team and member of the parliament Jatiya Sangsad from Narail-2. He was ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN WORLD FAME 100 in 2019.[8][9] He became only the fifth bowler in the history to take 100 ODI wickets as a captain.[10][11] He is the most successful captain of Bangladesh in ODI and T20I. He is also considered as the best captain of Bangladesh in ODI and T20I. He is the first pace bowler in the Bangladesh cricket history who bowled the quickest delivery clocking 148 km/h during a Test against New Zealand at Hamilton in 2001.[12][13] He broke into the national side in late 2001 against Zimbabwe and represented Bangladesh before having played a single first-class match. Mortaza captained his country in one Test and seven One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 2009 and 2010, however injury meant he was in and out of the side and Shakib Al Hasan was appointed captain in Mortaza's absence. Mortaza used to be considered one of the fastest bowlers produced by Bangladesh, previously bowling in the mid-145s-148s km/h in the 2000s,[12][13][14] and regularly opens the bowling. He is a useful lower-middle order batsman, with a first-class century and three Test half centuries to his name. Mortaza's career has been hampered by fifteen injuries and he has undergone a total of ten operations on his knees and ankles.[15]

Mortaza took temporary exemption from Test cricket in 2009 due to continuous back injuries for indefinite time and have not played any test match since[16] but continued to play in shorter formats. On 4 April 2017, he announced his intentions to retire from T20Is. He retired from all T20Is on 6 April 2017.[17] In December 2018, during Bangladesh's series against the West Indies, Mortaza played in his 200th ODI match. This includes two matches for the Asia XI team.[18] In the same series, he became the first cricketer to play 200 ODIs for Bangladesh[19] and set the record of captaining Bangladesh in most number of ODIs with seventy matches surpassing Habibul Bashar.[19] In March 2020, Mortaza became the first pace bowler and third player for Bangladesh to take 700 wickets in the professional career after Abdur Razzak and Shakib Al Hasan.[20][21][22]

Although he had never been involved in politics during his cricket career, Mortaza collected an MP nomination form for 2018 Bangladeshi general election on 11 November 2018 under Awami League's banner.[23] In December 2018, he won a seat in parliament, with 96% of the votes in his constituency, Narail-2.[24] On 20 June 2020, he was reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 and has been kept quarantined at his residence in Dhaka.[25][26][27]