BCB wishes Late Manzarul Islam Rana in a bizarre way; Ravi Ashwin reacts

On Tuesday, May 4, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) wished the Late Manzarul Islam Rana on his 37th birth anniversary. Rana made his debut as a teenager in 2003 as a 19-year-old and caught the limelight when he dismissed England skipper Michael Vaughan off his third ball. It also happened to be the first time when a Bangladesh cricketer took a wicket in his first international over.

In the very next year, the all-rounder forayed into Test cricket as he made his debut against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club. However, fate had a different story for him. In March 2007, Rana passed away at the age of 22 years and 316 days after a road accident. Remembering him, the BCB dropped a tweet on their official handle on Twitter.

BCB took to Twitter and wrote, “Happy Birthday to Manjural Islam Rana, youngest Test Cricketer to die at the age 22 years and 316 days.” In the meantime, Twitterati found a bizarre aspect of the tweet and asked the BCB to delete the tweet as it didn’t seem in good taste. Indian cricketer Ravi Ashwin was also left surprised as he reacted with the appropriate emoticon.

Here’s the tweet

Manzarul Islam Rana passed away before the 2003 World Cup

Rana left mother earth when the Bangladesh team was preparing for the World Cup in the West Indies. Habibul Bashar, the Tigers’ then captain, was devastated and termed the incident ‘shocking.

“It’s shocking news for all of us, he was a friend and a teammate. The boys are very upset,” Bashar was quoted as saying earlier.

It was the first World Cup when Bangladesh made the second round after beating Bermuda and India in the first round. As far as Rana was concerned, going by reports, he lost his balance on a motorbike and collided with an oncoming bus after which he lost his life.

On the previous day, he played a match in Fatullah where he picked up four wickets. Sajjadul Hasan, a local first-class cricketer, also died on his way to the hospital. In six Tests and 25 ODIs, Rana scored 588 runs with a top score of 69 and picked up 28 wickets.