Mashrafe Mortaza is on a high. For come April, he will mark his bowling run-up in the IPL colours he wanted to don the most — the black and gold of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“My preference was always the Knight Riders and I am very happy to be a part of the team,” said Mortaza from Bangladesh. “The language, food and the weather will be similar, so I won’t have much adjusting to do.”
The medium pacer, fondly known as Norail Express after his birthplace, feels a special attraction for the land across the Padma. “I have been to Calcutta 10 to 12 times. I feel that people there love me.”
The 25-year-old, No. 8 in the ICC ODI rankings and more expensive than Shaun Tait and Paul Collingwood, hopes to know the city more closely during his IPL debut season. “I used to stop over in Calcutta on my way to Bangalore for treatment. I didn’t get a lot of time for sightseeing but I have been to New Market and New Town.”
Mortaza, whose selection for the Knight Riders has “touched his parents”, also wants to catch up with the many friends he had made in the city during his visits. “Even my father’s old friends are now living in Calcutta.”
The Bangladesh deputy high commissioner in Calcutta, Syed Masud Mahmood Khunduker, said Mortaza’s inclusion in the Knight Riders “will bring the two Bengals closer”. “Sourav’s team” had a large following in Bangladesh last season and with Mortaza turning out for it, the support will be overwhelming, Khunduker predicted.
Jeet Banerjee of the Knight Riders was also confident that while the fan base of the other IPL teams extended to the neighbouring states at best, Mortaza would bring the support of an entire cricket-crazy nation to Sourav and Shah Rukh’s XI.
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