While the 11th Bangladeshi general election will be held on December 30, 2018, Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza is set to contest in that election. The 35-year-old is going to contest for the ruling party Awami League and will be contesting from his home district – Narail-2 constituency.
Recently, Mortaza announced this news through a long Facebook post where he also clarified the reason to contest in this upcoming election.
On a brief note of his Facebook post, it said, “I always had the impulse for politics. I always believed that development in our country is not possible strongly without politics… now I have the opportunity to do something for my country. I don’t know what is awaiting me after the 2019 World Cup. I value my time and I am paying attention to it. I believe that everything has to be done at the right time.”
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While the right-arm pacer Mortaza has played his last Test in July 2009 and retired from the T20I cricket in last year, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is likely to his final big assignment in international cricket career.
Making his international cricket debut in November 2001, at the age of just 18-year-old, Mortaza has played 36 Tests, 199 ODIs and 54 T20Is where he has picked up a total of 372 wickets in international cricket career (78 Test wickets, 252 ODI wickets and 42 T20I wickets). As a right-handed batsman, Mortaza is also a handy lower-order batsman who has scored 797 Test runs (average 12.85), 1,722 ODI runs (average 14.00) and 377 T20I runs (average 13.46) with a total of four half-centuries in international cricket.
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Mortaza has led the national side in a total of 96 matches (only Test, 67 ODIs and 28 T20Is) where Bangladesh has achieved some remarkable success.
Before the general election, Bangladesh has a three-match home ODI series against Windies from December 9 to 14. According to Bengali daily Kaler Kantho, Mortaza will begin his campaign after that ODI series.
