Out of many most curious subjects of Cricket, Jersey numbers is one. We all know the significance of Sachin Tendulkar’s No.10 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s No.7, those numbers rose to prominence because of the players who wore them.
Even cricket buffs often develop certain emotional attachments to the jersey numbers that are worn by their favorite cricketers. But, have you ever seen a player wearing a jersey with number ‘0’? Many of us say No, isn’t it?
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza left everyone amused with his decision to don a jersey that was numbered ‘0’ during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2017 match between Rangpur Riders and Rajshahi Kings.
At the end of the match, when Mortaza was asked about the reason behind his jersey number, he said he was inspired by former Protea batsman Herschelle Gibbs who used to play cricket donning jersey that had ’00’ as the number.
The real meaning behind it is the willingness to start from zero. “I was inspired by an interview of Gibbs that I read a few days back. There it was stated ‘start from zero again’ and honestly it was quite motivating,” said Mortaza.
“Initially I wore 20 and then later decided to keep the first part and began wearing 2. Now I am going back to the second part to complete the circle,” he added.
The right-hander also talked about the dismal run that Bangladesh had faced in South Africa after they failed to win a single game across all formats. “As a professional, I cannot look back and hold on to it,” said Mortaza about the overwhelming defeats that Bangladesh suffered in South Africa.
“Today is a good day, tomorrow might be a bad one. We need to work so that we can make sure day after tomorrow is better,” said a philosophical sounding Mortaza.
“How focused we are is important (more) than anything else. What I specifically want to do and achieve is (also) important. As a professional, you will have good and bad times. You need to take everything in your stride and make that count in the long run,” Mortaza concluded.
Under Mortaza’s captaincy, Bangladesh has enjoyed enormous success and rose to fame. Since the 2015 World Cup, the team became tough in familiar conditions.