International Career
He made his international debut at the 2004 Champions Trophy, and, despite scoring a thirteen-ball duck was persisted with owing to good performances at Under-19 level for Bangladesh. In only his third match of his career he took five wickets to become the first Bangladeshi bowler to achieve this feet in ODI. With his gentle medium pace he took 5 for 31 against New Zealand in the second of three ODI between the two teams, which has led him to bowl ten overs in most Bangladeshi games.
His record breaking success earned him a man of the match award in that match against New Zealand. Though he got early success with bowl in hand he still considered him as a batsman who can bowl a bit. He first major success with the bat came in at one of the historical moments of Bangladesh cricket. In the 100th ODI match of Bangladesh, Ahmed scored his maiden fifty which later proved to vital as Bangladesh narrowly beat India by 14 runs in that match. That was also the first home victory for the team. He made an important knock of 81 not out against Zimbabwe to clinch the series at the last game as it hanged 2-2 before the decider. Bangladesh came back from 2-0 down and won the series to become only the second team to win a five match series after losing the first two games. In the disappointing Test series against England when Bangladesh first toured England, in 2005, he scored his first Test fifty with 82 not out as Bangladesh made 316 in the second innings of the second Test. He and also made 51 in the first ODI against England in the 2005 NatWest Series. In Bangladesh's victory over Australia in 2005, Ahmed scored 23 from 17 balls. Again in 2005 when Bangladesh was nearly 60 runs away to register their first victory over Sri Lanka Aftab came to the crease and made a match winning 50-run partnership with Alok Kapali.
On September 16, 2008 the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a ten-year ban for Aftab along with other 13 other Bangladeshi cricketer for joining the unauthorised Indian Cricket League. However Aftab then quit the ICL and re-joined the Bangladesh national cricket team with his first assignment being against England in 2010. He is now retired from international and domestic cricket.
Read more about this topic: Aftab Ahmed
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“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
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