Athar Ali Khan ( bn, আতহার আলী খান; born 10 February 1962) is a Bangladeshi cricket commentator and former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. Throughout the 1980s, Athar played as a middle order batsman, batting mostly at No. 4 or 5. Later on, encouraged by the Indian Test Cricketer,

Mohinder Amarnath Mohinder Amarnath Bhardwaj (born 24 September 1950) is an Indian former cricketer,current cricket analyst and actor. He is the son of Lala Amarnath, (the first post-independence captain of India .) and Kailash Kumari. His brother Surinder Ama ...

, Atahar started opening regularly for the

Bangladesh national cricket team The Bangladesh men's national cricket team ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় ক্রিকেট দল), popularly known as The Tigers, is administered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). It is a Full Member of the Inte ...

. He was a slow medium pacer taking six wickets in ODI matches. He is an

Urdu-speaking Native speakers of Urdu are spread across South Asia. The vast majority of them are Muslims of the Hindi–Urdu Belt of northern India, followed by the Deccani people of the Deccan plateau in south-central India (who speak Deccani Urdu) and the M ...

Bangladeshi.His ancestors are from Uttar Pradesh now in India.

International career

Early years

In 1984, Atahar played for the Bangladesh Tigers in the first South East Asian Cup. A year later he played in the 3 Day match against Sri Lanka in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

. During the season 1984–85 he was part of the Dhaka University team which won the National cricket title. In the semi-final, against

district, Atahar scored 155 and shared a record stand of 447 with Tariquzzaman Munir (308).

Prominence

In October 1988, he was Bangladesh's best performer in the Wills Asia Cup at Dhaka. He scored 16 against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, 22 against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

and 30 against Sri Lanka. Then on the final day of 1990, he entertained the huge 50,000-strong crowd at Eden Garden,

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

with a score of 78* against Sri Lanka. His innings included three huge sixes. Although

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

lost the match, Atahar was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match. Atahar's highest ODI score (82) came against

in 1997. There, he put on a century partnership (110) with skipper Akram Khan (59). He was involved with another century partnership a year later. Against

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, he put on 137 for the first wicket with Mohammad Rafiq. Atahar's own contribution was 47. This partnership set up Bangladesh's first ever ODI win. His best bowling in ODI was 2/33 against

at Mohali in 1997.

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain w ...

was one of his victims. Atahar played for

in three ICC Trophy tournaments, in England in 1986, in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

in 1994 and finally in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

in 1997. He had a disappointing time in England in '86, as he lost his place in the side midway through the trophy, due to lack of form. He had scored only 55 runs from 5 innings. The wet conditions in England did not suit Atahar's batting technique. After being overlooked for the 1990 trophy in

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, Atahar returned for 1994 tournament in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

. There also, he failed to live up to the expectations, scoring only 90 runs from 6 innings. However, Atahar played a big part in

's success 3 years later. He scored 170 runs from 9 innings, with 2 not outs, as

became the unbeaten champion.

Beyond internationals

1988 was a highly successful year for Atahar Ali Khan. First, at the 2nd South East Asian Cup at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Athar scored 92 not out against Hong Kong, 69 not out against Singapore in the League matches and followed these with 64 in the final against Hong Kong. He was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match for the final. Atahar played for

in 3

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan ...

cricket tournaments in

. He scored 52 against Sri Lanka A in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, to set up a win for his team."Indian Cricket 1995" (Compiled by P.V. Vaidyanathan), Kasturi & Sons Limited, Madras. Published in December 1995.

Outside cricket

He studied public administration at Dhaka University.

International awards

One Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

References

External links

Athar Ali Khan
at CricketArchive

at Cricinfo {{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Athar Ali 1962 births Bangladesh One Day International cricketers Bangladeshi cricketers Bangladeshi cricket commentators University of Dhaka alumni Living people Bangladeshi cricket coaches Cricketers from Dhaka Urdu-speaking Bangladeshi