Nabid Yeasin

“I hope many more girls in our country will focus more on playing cricket and work on their fitness in order to achieve something for their country after seeing my performance or Jahanra’s [Alam] performance,” Salma Khatun said after helping Trailblazers win the Women’s T20 Challenge for the first time.

Salma had to go through a challenging six-day quarantine period at a hotel in the United Arab Emirates before she got the chance to introduce herself to the rest of her Trailblazers teammates, with whom she participated in the three-team T20 tournament.

But by the time the tournament ended, Salma ensured that she would need no further introduction, at least not to players from around the globe playing in the franchise T20 tournament -- popularly known as the Women’s IPL.

In her debut campaign, she played an important part in helping Trailblazers to the title. Adapting to tough situations was never an issue for a girl whose family had endured poverty for most of their lives. And Salma yet again proved her mettle at a crucial juncture of the final as she returned miserly figures of three for 18 in her four overs after coming on to bowl at the latter stages during their 16-run victory over Supernovas on Monday.

Salma belongs to the very first batch of women cricketers of the country and so her cricketing journey is laying the foundation for future batches of cricketers in the country. And in that regard, Salma has rarely failed to inspire.

It was under her leadership that Bangladesh won the Asia Cup in 2018 -- the first major cricketing trophy for a country where male cricketers usually get the lion’s share of the spotlight.

According to Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, who was manager of the BCB women’s cricket wing development for a long time, Salma is just as good as any male spinner the country has.

“Salma has the ability to turn the ball away from the batters and can also bowl the arm ball very effectively. She is as good as any spinner we have in the Bangladesh [male] side,” opined Nazmul.

Salma was however not the only Bangladeshi player who featured in the tournament. Pacer Jahanara Alam completed her second stint with Velocity. Even though Velocity could not make it to the final, falling short on net run-rate, Jahanara did not fail to make a name for herself. The right-armer scalped two crucial wickets during their win against Supernovas in the opening game.

In the early 2000s, it took some inspiring performances from the likes of Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Ashraful and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza to help instil the confidence in the next generation that they too can do well on the international stage. Similarly, the likes of Salma and Jahanara could be the ones to lay the groundwork and pave the path for the upcoming batch of women cricketers, who could reach new heights at the highest level.

They just need to work harder in order to turn what Salma already believes into reality, “I believe we have more girls capable of playing in the IPL. Since it’s only three teams, they could not get in but if there are more teams I am sure two to three more players from Bangladesh would get called up.”