Bangladesh cricketers saved by a football match
Bangladesh cricketers would have been in the Al Noor Mosque in 2019 when the gunman opened fire, had it not been for a one-on-one football match that held the bus up.
Alate-running one-on-one football game saved the Bangladesh cricket team from being caught up in the Christchurch mosque shootings.
Today marks the two-year anniversary of the harrowing day in New Zealand history, which killed 51 people and injured 40.
Bangladesh were in Christchurch for the third test against the Black Caps at Hagley Oval, which was scheduled to start the following day. Will Young was set to make his test debut for captain Kane Williamson, nursing a pectoral muscle tear, but the match was promptly abandoned.
Instead of running out onto the picturesque Hagley ground, Bangladesh were fleeing the city under police guard to fly home. They narrowly avoided being inside the Al Noor Mosque on Deans Ave for the Friday prayer session.
Remarkably, a late-running oneon-one football game between Taijul Islam and Mushfiqur Rahim caused the team bus not to arrive at the mosque when it should have. A drawn out press conference also contributed.
Two years on, Bangladesh have made an emotional return, completing their managed isolation in Christchurch on Wednesday.
The first ODI is in Dunedin on Saturday before they head to Hagley for the second match next Tuesday – a venue they escaped to while the shootings were unfolding. Bangladesh were housed securely in a dressing room at the ground while a local liaison person explained how they would get back to their hotel safely.
Speaking last week at the end of quarantine, captain
Tamim Iqbal said the experience had been traumatising and taken significant time to recover from.
He was reluctant to recount those memories and said
New Zealand was a lovely country. Bangladesh were excited to enjoy the tour and play well against the Black Caps.
‘‘We just have to respect that thing, respect the families, who have lost their own, and just pray that God makes it easy for them. That’s it. I really don’t want to go into that thing because it’s not a nice feeling to have,’’ Tamim said. ‘‘New Zealand has given us a lot of good reason to come here and I’m sure in the future we won’t hesitate to come because apart from that incident New Zealand has been fantastic.’’
Tamim praised the work of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern following the mosque attacks and said if he got the opportunity to meet her, he would personally thank her.
‘‘This is probably my fourth or fifth time to New Zealand. We always look forward to coming. It’s a beautiful country, very nice people.
‘‘I should mention the prime minister. The way she acted during those difficult times was something that was really appreciated by all Bangladeshis. I think she did a fantastic job.’’
Seventeen Bangladesh players, including Tamim, and support staff were minutes away from being
inside the mosque when the gunman opened fire.
It was only a late-running one-onone football game that delayed them.
‘‘In the dressing room, we got engaged in a game of football. Taijul didn’t want to lose, but the others wanted him to lose in that game. Taijul and Mushfiq were having a one-on-one game, which took up a few more minutes. These little things saved us in the end,’’ Tamim told ESPNcricinfo at the time.
‘‘Normally Mushfiq [Rahim] and Riyad bhai [Mahmudullah] want to be present during the Khudbah [sermon], which is why we want to reach the Jumma prayers early.
‘‘The bus was scheduled to leave at 1.30pm, but Riyad bhai had gone to the press conference. A bit of time was spent there, and after finishing the press conference, he came to the dressing room.’’
Tamim told ESPNcricinfo as always he was sitting on the sixth seat on the left of the bus. As they drew nearer to the mosque, everyone on the right could see something from their windows. The bus was stationed about 45m from the entrance to mosque.
‘‘When we saw more dead bodies, we couldn’t figure out what to do. Those wearing the namaz cap, they took it off in fear. I mean we figured out that something was going on. Those wearing Punjabi [shalwar kameez] they started to wear a jacket over it. What else to do?.’’ The team lay on the floor of the bus for 10 minutes, not exactly sure what was going on inside. They knew it was some kind of violence. Everybody was in an absolute panic.
‘‘Had we reached even three or four minutes earlier we would have probably been inside the mosque,’’ team manager Khaled Mashud said in a video at the time.
‘‘The visuals we saw were straight out of a movie scene.’’
Police appeared and special forces stormed the mosque. The Bangladesh contingent could see injured and bloodied people coming from the building.
Players screamed to be let off the bus, knowing they had a chance to escape if they were allowed off.
‘‘Right at that point, for some reason, the driver took the bus 10 metres ahead. I don’t know why he did this. We were at breaking point at that point. Everyone lost it.
‘‘We started to bang the middle door. We were kicking and punching that door. He opened the door,’’ Tamim told ESPNcricinfo.
Once out of the bus, they thought about running through Hagley Park, but decided a brisk walk would be wiser, so not to draw attention to themselves.
After safely sheltering at Hagley Oval, they returned to their hotel terrified by the day’s events, desperate to get home to loved ones in Bangladesh.
‘‘You know, you had seen death with your own eyes. Your body goes cold. It was something we will never forget,’’ Tamim said.
‘‘On our way to the airport, we were telling each other that if things had gone wrong by even a little bit, it would have been our dead bodies, not us, going home.
‘‘It was just a matter of 30 seconds.’’