Saqibul Hasan, Bangladesh - Player profile

Saqibul Hasan's our guy. Let's capitalise that in fact: Saqibul Hasan's Our Guy. See this post at our other site for more information as to why.

Some people think that he's a medium-pace bowler. We're fairly certain that he's a spinner, but we're often wrong. He's definitely a quick-scoring batsman though and he's definitely five-years-old. Or about that.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Enamul Haque Junior, Bangladesh - Player profile

Sounds like a dark dentistry practice, is actually a fine spin bowler.

He's 19. Like the rest of the Bangladesh team. Give them 10 years and they'll be wiping the floor with everyone. Mark our words.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Shahadat Hossain, Bangladesh - Player profile

Shahadat Hossain is pretty quick. We're not sure exactly how quick, whether it's Bangladesh-quick (everyone's a left-arm spinner) or 100mph quick.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Abdur Razzak, Bangladesh - Player profile

Unlike Abdul Razzaq of Pakistan, who was formerly 'Abdur', this Abdur is definitely an 'Abdur' not an 'Abdul'. We think.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh - Player profile

Solid.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Khaled Mashud, Bangladesh - Player profile

Khaled Mashud is Bangladesh's wicketkeeper. He hit a hundred against West Indies. He's 30.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Mohammad Rafique, Bangladesh - Player profile

We like Mohammad Rafique. He's a wily old gnarl-dog of a spin bowler and a slogging sort of batsman.

He hit a hundred batting at nine against the West Indies once. Mostly he's a bowler though. Bangladesh's main one really.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Habibul Bashar, Bangladesh - Player profile

Habibul Bashar is in his thirties and he plays for Bangladesh! It's pretty much unheard of.

He's the captain and he's just about world class. Maybe just under. Not out of place in international cricket, but nothing special. He's an important figure for Bangladesh. They're new.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladesh - Player profile

Mohammad Ashraful hit a hundred against Sri Lanka and Murali when he was either 16 or 17. He's obviously quite some player.

He's obviously as good as anyone against spin, but he hit a one-day hundred against Australia in Bangladesh's Big Win as well. Mostly he gets out for very little and gets on your nerves, but, you know - sooner or later...

Back to Bangladesh squad

Aftab Ahmed, Bangladesh - Player profile

Like most of Bangladesh's batsmen, Aftab Ahmed is 20 and has hit a few promising fifties.

We've no idea whether he'll get better or not. Let's toss a coin: Heads. Aftab Ahmed is going to be really good one day.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Shahriar Nafees, Bangladesh - Player profile

Shahriar Nafees has hit a Test hundred. He did it against Australia. He's quite old by Bangladesh's standards. He's 20.

Back to Bangladesh squad

Javed Omar, Bangladesh - Player profile

Javed Omar's hit a Test hundred. He did it against Pakistan. Think he got dropped the other day. Can't remember.

Back to Bangladesh squad

New Zealand

Shane Bond
Stephen Fleming
James Franklin
Peter Fulton
Mark Gillespie
Brendon McCullum
Craig McMillan
Michael Mason
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daryl Tuffey
Daniel Vettori
Lou Vincent

Main page

Other New Zealand players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Andre Adams
Nathan Astle
Hamish Marshall
Chris Martin
Michael Papps

Lou Vincent, New Zealand - Player profile

Lou Vincent's a batsman. Not a massively good one, but he's better than you.

Back to New Zealand squad

Daniel Vettori, New Zealand - Player profile

Daniel Vettori is one of the most senior figures in the New Zealand squad and he's only 27. He's been around since Perestroika.

Daniel Vettori sticks out like a sore thumb in the New Zealand team because he's a spinner. He wears glasses as well, which is all too rare in professional sport. Admittedly, his glasses have become a bit trendy in recent years and he'll have lost much of the dork vote, but he's still to be admired. He can bat a bit these days as well, which is allowed because he's a spinner and not a medium-pacer. It's the medium-pacers' faults that he has to bat at nine.

Back to New Zealand squad

Scott Styris, New Zealand - Player profile

You know what we'd do if we were from New Zealand? We'd copy Stephen Fleming or Daniel Vettori or Shane Bond. We wouldn't copy Chris Cairns. Chris Cairns isn't the only decent player of recent vintage to play for New Zealand and yet they all want to be him.

Scott Styris is probably too old to be accused of copying Chris Cairns anyway. Actually, hang on a minute, Chris Cairns was quite fast back in the day. He wasn't a medium-pacer. Who's everyone copying then?

Back to New Zealand squad

Jeetan Patel, New Zealand - Player profile

Jeetan Patel's an off-spinner, which is good. He's also not up to much with the bat, which is also good, if you play for New Zealand. You stand out from the crowd.

Back to New Zealand squad

Michael Papps, New Zealand - Player profile

Michael Papps is an opening batsman. He gets marks for not batting in the middle-order. He also keeps wicket sometimes, which would stop him from bowling medium-pace. Marks for that too.

We don't really know Michael Papps, if we're honest.

Back to New Zealand squad

Jacob Oram, New Zealand - Player profile

Oh please. No more of this. Jacob Oram is Mr New Zealand Cricket: He's a hard-hitting middle-order batsman and competent medium-pacer.

Just what do they do over there? Is all cricket one-on-one to reward ability in both disciplines. It's admirable in its own way, but come on.

Back to New Zealand squad

Chris Martin, New Zealand - Player profile

He's got the same name as that guy from Coldplay: Chris Martin. This Chris Martin is a bowler though. His name's the most interesting thing about him, unfortunately.

At least he's a crap batsman, so you can't tar him with the Kiwi all-rounder brush. And yes - there is such a brush.

Back to New Zealand squad

Hamish Marshall, New Zealand - Player profile

Quite simply, what do you add to that? We don't know why he hasn't stuck with the look. Why would anybody, given the choice, opt NOT to look like that? Awesome performance.

Hamish Marshall is a batsman. His normal hair's pretty good too.

Back to New Zealand squad

Brendon McCullum, New Zealand - Player profile

Brendon McCullum's New Zealand's wicketkeeper, but he's probably worth watching with the bat.

We've only seen him a couple of times, but we'd class him as 'adventurous'. He doesn't bat from the depths of the rainforest or space or anywhere. He just likes to take you, the viewer, on a journey in each innings. That's what people mean when they say that someone's 'adventurous' with the bat.

We can't believe we just wrote that about 'taking the viewer on a journey'. We're pretty ashamed of ourself.

Back to New Zealand squad

James Franklin, New Zealand - Player profile

When James Franklin was first called up, we were quite pleased. He was a bowler. As in, he was just a bowler. Not a middle-order batsman who bowled a bit of medium-pace and not a medium-pace bowler who batted a bit. A bowler.

Recently, James Franklin has shown signs of becoming a better batsman. Even though we don't like New Zealand's medium-pace all-rounder production line, we were paradoxically pleased by this. We like to see players improving themselves. It shows a good attitude. We may not like the end product, but we respect a player working at the weaker parts of their games. That's one thing that's great about cricket: Everyone has to bat.

Then we found out that James Franklin had apparently always had 'batting potential'. Now we don't like him because he's not someone who's worked at his game and improved himself unexpectedly, he's just the latest player heading for his rightful place as a medium-pace bowler/middle-order batsman in the New Zealand team.

Back to New Zealand squad

Stephen Fleming, New Zealand - Player profile

You have to say that Stephen Fleming is the best captain in world cricket. Those are the rules. We're not going to disagree.

Certainly Stephen Fleming is greatly responsible for making New Zealand stern opposition in one-day cricket. His batting's also come on throughout his career. At this point we'd rate him one of the better one-day batsmen around, capable of match-winning innings.

Back to New Zealand squad

Shane Bond, New Zealand - Player profile

Shane Bond is an absolutely fantastic, genuinely quick bowler. Will he be playing in the World Cup? Will he balls. He'll be injured. Shane Bond must have bones made of pine needles and muscles made of head hair. He can barely open his eyes in the morning without straining a retina.

We hope that Shane Bond does play in the World Cup. Shane Bond is definitely worth watching.

Back to New Zealand squad

Nathan Astle, New Zealand - Player profile

Now you're talking. Nathan Astle produced this innings, described on our other site, King Cricket. Quite frankly you have to love a batsman who so stubbornly defies reason and not so much mugs a bowling attack, as shoots it in the face with some sort of missile before giving it a communal wedgie.

Until this point Nathan Astle had been pretty much your stock New Zealand cricketer, a middle-order batsman who bowls a bit of medium-pace. Ever since he's been a sort of liberated poster-boy for independent thought and individuality.

Back to New Zealand squad

Andre Adams, New Zealand - Player profile

Andre Adams is something of an oddity in New Zealand cricket. Rather than being a batsman who bowls a bit of medium-pace, Andre Adams is a medium-pace bowler who bats a bit.

Back to New Zealand squad

Contact us

We can be contacted by e-mail at:

blueandbrown@bluebottle.com

Main page

Latest news

Squads:

Australia
Bangladesh
England
India
New Zealand
Pakistan
South Africa
Sri Lanka
West Indies

About

We're Blue and Brown. We write King Cricket. This is our site devoted to the Cricket World Cup in 2007 over in the Caribbean.

We haven't actually finished writing the site yet and probably never will, but so far there's loads of player profiles. If you want statistics and stuff, you'd be better off going to Cricinfo, but if you want the real lowdown on the players. This is your place.