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Third Umpire Dhaka, Dhanmondi (2026)

11/09/2026

Hasan Mahmud and Bertie Foreman fighting for a draw. Absolute thriller!

03/09/2026

Courtney Walsh took more Test wickets than any bowler in history and made more Test ducks than any batter in history. Seventeen years, 5,004 overs, 519 wickets, and not one of them came easily. Aged 38, in his final series, he took more wickets than anyone else on either side. What a career, what a story.

The career trajectory of Courtney is pretty interesting. Maybe many do not know, but he had a second peak that should never have happened. Most fast bowlers break down or lose their pace after thirty, and the 6ft 6in ones tend to go first, because there is more body to hold together. Walsh went the other way entirely. He bowled those 5,004.1 overs across 132 Test matches in a seventeen-year career, and on 19 March 2001 at Port of Spain, aged 38, he trapped Jacques Kallis lbw for nought and became the first bowler in the history of the sport to reach 500 Test wickets. Now the freakish part is that today's sports scientists cap fast bowlers with strict annual over limits precisely to prevent what should have happened to him. (He had a smooth, low-impact action and he simply never stopped.)

And that second peak made him a proper workhorse right to the end. In that final series against South Africa, at 38 years old, in a West Indies side that had been collapsing around him for years, Walsh took 25 wickets. More than any other bowler on either side.

Seventeen years, 5,004 overs, 519 wickets, and a home crowd on its feet at the end.

Respect, mon.

Post and photo credit: Caught at Silly Point

03/09/2026

New Zealand needed 20 off the final over from Rangana Herath. The man on strike averaged 20.98 in ODIs. He finished 32 not out off nine balls. Happy birthday to Nathan McCullum, who was a footballer first and a match-winner second, and who anchored the spin department alongside Daniel Vettori with a reliability, over after over, that bought Brendon the tactical luxury of setting the aggressive, unconventional fields everyone still talks about.

And the story of how he got there is genuinely strange, because he was not supposed to be a cricketer at all. Long before he locked down a slot in the Black Caps' spin attack, Nathan McCullum's primary athletic obsession was football, and he spent his early sporting years as a striker before making a late cross-code switch. No academy conveyor belt, no straight line from childhood. Just a footballer who changed sports and turned out to be extremely good at the new one.

What was his actual role, though? Everyone remembers the other McCullum, and fairly enough, because Brendon was the fiery public face of New Zealand's 2015 World Cup cycle. But that whole approach only worked because somebody was holding the other end. High-risk captaincy is not courage on its own, it is courage plus a floor underneath it, and Nathan was the floor. Somebody has to be boring so somebody else can be bold, and the quiet brother did that job for the better part of a decade without ever asking for the credit.

And then, once in a while, he did something like this. Hambantota, 12 November 2013, a rain-curtailed match with New Zealand chasing a revised target of 198 in 23 overs. It comes down to 20 needed off the last over. Sri Lanka have Rangana Herath, one of the finest spinners of the era, and New Zealand have a number seven averaging 20.98 in ODIs. Angelo Mathews said afterwards that he went to his best bowler for that over and would have made the same call every time.

Three sixes and a four. Thirty-two not out off nine balls. Won off the final delivery, by four wickets.

The commentary on ESPNcricinfo as it happened simply read: "Hellooo, where did that come from! Nathan McCullum has done an ABdV here!"

Nobody in that ground thought it was possible, including probably the man doing it. Happy birthday to the quiet McCullum, who spent a career making other people's risks survivable and occasionally took one of his own.

Post and photo Credit: Caught at Silly Point

27/08/2026

100,84,103 and 133* in 4 consecutive innings against India. Became the first batsman to score more than 400 runs in a two match series while batting at 6 or below. In just two games, he already has more centuries than the likes of Lara, Graeme Smith, Kane Williamson, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist against India.

Only the third player to score twin hundreds in a Test match where the team has followed on. Only the 3rd Sri Lankan to score four 50+ scores in a 2-match Test series.

What a series Sonal Dinusha had against India. Unbelievable temperament, unflappable concentration and solid spin playing technique. Sri Lanka unearthed another gem of a Test player.

Post and photo credit: Words & Wickets

27/08/2026

If Bangladesh came back to Australia for 2 tests in perhaps 4 years, which venues would the two teams agree to play on?

Bangladesh said that they want to come back to Australia more often, hinting at wanting to come back, and they want to play in Australia's major venues, such as the MCG, SCG, Perth Stadium, the Gabba and Adelaide Oval.

But Cricket Australia meanwhile are saying that they want to host more matches in Australia's tropical north, and they also want to add a 4th tropical venue in Townsville to the mix.

Townsville has never hosted a test match before, but has been an international venue since 2014, and has hosted ODIs and T20Is, as well as women's internationals, Australia A matches and Sheffield Shield. It is well and truly ready for the elevation to test level.

As hosts, Australia would get to suggest which grounds are available, but as visitors Bangladesh would get to decide if they agreed.

In 2003, only 2 venues were offered, both of them being given their test debut, in Darwin and Cairns.

In 2026, Australia offered a third venue in Mackay, and went back to Darwin for a second time.

What will Australia offer and what will Bangladesh agree to?

Darwin and Cairns only got test status as venues explicitly because they were in the tropics and therefore could be more Bangladesh-like and hence make for more competitive matches. While we are now talking them up as making use of Australia's winter in order to make Australia a year-round cricket venue, that wasn't the original reason for use of those two grounds, and it's not why they were chosen as venues for Bangladesh in the initial tour in 2003.

Notably, the only other team to have played on those 2 grounds is Sri Lanka, another subcontinent team who would have gained a significant advantage from playing in familiar conditions, effectively making these grounds something of a neutral venue.

But will Bangladesh agree to go to Mackay if they have to pick 2 gounds out of 4?

Unlikely, given what their captain said that implied that he thought that Australia cheated at Mackay or doctored the pitch somehow.

Bangladesh will probably pick Darwin, given that that is where they won their test match, and by 9 wickets, so you can pretty much guarantee that Darwin will get to host Bangladesh the next time they play.

But where else?

It will really depend on if Townsville is available, and if Bangladesh want to maximise their chances of winning a test in Australia or if they want to prove that they are better now than they were in 2003.

After all, in 2003 they lost in both Darwin and Cairns, and if they want to prove that they are a better team now, they will play in Cairns to prove that they can win there now.

And let's not forget that Darwin and Cairns are both far further north than Mackay, which should advantage Bangladesh a lot more than Mackay did.

But what about Townsville?

It's in between Cairns and Mackay, further north than Mackay, but still south of Cairns, and in the same state, of Queensland.

The conditions are largely unknown, as it has never hosted a test match, and has just a handful of first class matches to base it on, plus of course some ODIs and T20Is.

We don't really know what it will do in a test match.

So could Bangladesh choose Townsville as their second venue?

I think they might.

While the idea of showing that they can win in Cairns has merit, and the conditions in Cairns are more likely to favour Bangladesh than Townsville would, I think that they would want to try a new venue in Townsville because then they would be playing somewhere that they have never lost at, and which Australia wouldn't be familiar with either, hence making it something of a neutral venue.

There is an argument either way between Townsville and Cairns.

I can't see them picking Mackay, though, not after they openly accused Australia of doctoring the pitch there, after their massive 2-day innings loss, which didn't even see the ground sanctioned.

So my tip:

1st test at Darwin
2nd test at Townsville

As for how far away it will be, my tip is 8 years.

I don't think that there is yet enough interest to justify doing it every 4 years, which is the narrowest time allowed between hosting a bilateral test series between the same two teams, nor has it led to Australia wanting to have greater than a 2-test series or to venture outside of the winter and the tropical region. It just means that Australia will probably want to see Bangladesh more frequently than they have done, but that just means less than 23 years between tests in Australia.

I just can't see Bangladesh approving playing at Mackay next time, or maybe ever again.

And, while Cairns is possible, assuming that Townsville is available I think that that is more likely.

Photo and post credit: Adrian Meredith

27/08/2026

On Bangladesh trolls compared to trolls from other parts of the world:

I never face Bangladesh trolls except for when we are playing against them. Then they come out of the woodwork.

And, curiously, it's only when they beat us that they troll us.

When Bangladesh were playing in the T20 World Cup, and ultimately didn't play, I had an extra 5,000 followers, or perhaps more, come from Bangladesh, who were praising me all of the time.

When we went to Bangladesh to play one-dayers, suddenly they trolled me after they won the first ODI.

They trolled me harder when they won the second ODI.

They were still trolling me when they lost the third ODI, because they won the series.

Then... it stopped.

They lost the first T20I and with that loss the trolling pretty much ended.

They lost the second T20I and they were apologetic and nice.

After losing the third T20I they were very nice.

I then got trolled for being too nice to them, and about them, in saying that they should win in Darwin. I had Bangladesh cricket fans troll me for being too pro-Bangladesh.

Then when Bangladesh won and I praised them, I got trolled.

That trolling intensified as they made up stupid excuses for losing the second test.

It was illogical and stupid, and it's actually how they've always behaved.

Bangladesh cricket fans, as a whole, are very nice when they lose.

They are sore winners.

When they win, they rub it in.

When they lose, they become nice again.

Oh, losses after they've been winning leads to them having stupid conspiracy theories that are quite ridiculous to listen to, and they act like any alternative to their daft conspiracy theory that points to facts and logic is itself nonsensical.

The transition from being a winning team to being a losing team seems to cause a paradigm shift in their fans' minds, as they snap, because the trolling can no longer work, since they can only troll when they win, so they invent these daft conspiracy theories as a kind of gap.

I am still quite new to Bangladesh cricket circles.

Obviously I gained some popularity after the 2015 World Cup, though it died away after a year or two. My comments praising them for their 2017 win over Australia gained some traction, but by 2018 nobody in Bangladesh cared about me.

How does this compare to trolls from other countries?

Indians threaten to end your life. Like they go full-on. Indians go all-in over nothing, and everything, and they make stuff up to justify it. They are constant, they stalk you, and they do not let it go ever. Indians create a thousand accounts each and they keep going and going and going for months and months and months on end. They demand you to do everything they say or they will end you.

Australians pay to bully you, giving money to Russian troll farms that then harass you in huge numbers in a short period of time using an algorithm. Australians are the only ones who pay to bully. It's insane.

Sri Lankans are nasty. But they only come in when you mention certain things, then they go back into their little holes.

New Zealanders are horrific, but, like Sri Lankans, they only worry about it when you mention them.

Same as South Africans.

English hate it when you're nice to them. You have to be mean to them. They troll you for praising them. But if you're too mean then they tell you off. You have to be just the right amount of mean. Too nice and they abuse you, and too mean and they abuse you. Like a nice cup of tea, it has to be just right.

English trolls are weird.

Pakistani trolls are actually quite hard to find. They put up with mean comments about them, but there's certain triggers, like questioning the validity of the bowling action of a certain player, and then they tell you off and that's about it. Pakistanis are some of the nicest and least likely to troll you out of anyone. When they do come out they are nasty, and even racist, but they then go back into their little holes.

Afghan trolls are even harder to find than Pakistani trolls, and I rarely come across them. Even when I criticise Afghanistan about as much as is possible, they are humble and okay with it.

So how does Bangladesh compare?

Well, I think that they are worse than Pakistanis and Afghans, and also English. They are probably similar to New Zealanders and Sri Lankans, but, when they hit, they can be nastier.

Certainly, Bangladesh trolls are some of the most illogical and stupid ones out there.

But Indians are still my gold medal winners, and I think that Australian trolls are probably second.

So are Bangladesh trolls third?

I mean, maybe?

But it's really quite conditional, as, when they are losing regularly, they disappear.

So I'm putting Bangladesh in third place.

Copied from Adrian Meredith

27/08/2026

Everton Weekes did it in 1948. Zaheer Abbas did it in 1978. In the 48 years since, nobody had made 80-plus in each of their first three Test innings against India, until a 25-year-old from Colombo did it this week. Back-to-back hundreds for Sonal Dinusha, and three facts make the case that this is something genuinely rare.

Firstly, the consecutive centuries themselves. A hundred at Galle, then 103 at the SSC in Colombo, and the last Sri Lankan to score centuries in successive Tests against India was Angelo Mathews back in 2015, eleven years and an entire generation of Sri Lankan batting ago. Now the freakish part is where he was batting when he did it. it was number six in Galle, number seven in Colombo, which makes him only the seventh Sri Lankan ever to score a Test hundred against India from that far down the order. (This is not a top-order player feasting on a new ball that has gone soft.)

However the second fact is the one that should stop you completely. Across his first three Test innings against India, Dinusha has scored 100, 84 and 103. Every single one past 80. only two batters in the entire history of Test cricket have ever done that against India, Everton Weekes in 1948 and Zaheer Abbas in 1978, which means the last man to manage it did so 48 years ago. He is also just the eighth batter ever to make hundreds in his first two Tests against India, a list that includes Weekes, Garfield Sobers, Zaheer, Duleep Mendis, Robin Smith, Gary Kirsten and Jesse Ryder.

And third, look at the situations he walked into. In Galle it was 90 for 5. In Colombo it was 137 for 5, chasing India's 503 for 9 declared. Both times the innings was already collapsing, and both times he built it back almost single-handedly. Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 290 in Colombo, exactly 14 runs short of avoiding the follow-on. Fourteen. One more partnership, one fewer soft dismissal at the other end, and he saves the entire match situation on his own.

Look at the series list and the loneliness of it becomes obvious. 287 runs for Dinusha. 90 for Niroshan Dickwella. 88 for Dhananjaya de Silva. Nearly triple the next man, from a player who made his Test debut only in June 2025.

What an innings, Sonal.

Photo and post credit: Caught at Silly Point

27/08/2026

AB de Villiers was so extraordinary in white-ball cricket that we quietly forgot he was one of the finest Test batters of his generation.

Have we ever stopped to wonder why we do not rate AB de Villiers' Test career as highly as we should? Because I genuinely believe we should. He was insanely special in this format, ahead of plenty of names we celebrate without hesitation.

Start with the numbers. He averaged 40 plus in every single country he played in, with the exceptions of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, where he barely batted at all. Sixty-eight scores of fifty or more in 191 innings. Three hundreds as an opener. Seven hundreds while keeping wicket. pretty good, right?

But the numbers are not even the strongest part of his extraordinary career. The adaptability is. This was a man who conquered difficult attacks in every corner of the world. This was a man who kept scoring in conditions that had no business suiting him. This was a man with a complete all-round game, capable of keeping wicket and still walking out to build an innings.

And the proof as an example would be his final season, at the start of 2018, he took apart the two best attacks in world cricket, India and Australia, and stood above every batsman in those series apart from Kohli. That was a man in the closing chapter of his career, not at his peak.

So why does the greatness get ignored? Simple. He was such a monster with the white ball that the red-ball record looks modest beside it, when the truth is the exact opposite. Any batsman alive would take those Test numbers and wear them proudly. And normally this is where a home board steps in to build the legacy properly, yet Cricket South Africa have never pushed what he achieved the way other countries would have.

The thought I keep coming back to is this. AB never declined in Test cricket. He just stopped playing it. Forever relevant.

Post and photo credit: Caught at Silly Point

27/08/2026

Absolute rampage by Sonal Dinusha. From following on to a 190 runs lead in the 5th day of the match, this guy has singlehandedly shocked the Indian team and resisted them from an easy win with immense resilience. 🇱🇰 🇱🇰

22/08/2026

২০০৩-এর টিমের মেন্টালিটি এদের চেয়ে ভালো ছিলো। টেস্ট ক্রিকেট কি জানতোই না তারা, সব ইউনিটের স্পেশালাইজড কোচ, HP ইউনিট, ফিজিও, টপ ফ্যাসিলিটিজ কিছুই ছিলো না। খালেদ মাহমুদ সুজন একটা ইন্টারভিউতেই বলেন, স্টিভ ওয়াহদের বিপক্ষে খেলতে যাবে, তাদের দেশে, যাদের খেলা সবসময় টিভির পর্দায় দেখে আসছে, এই ব্যাপারটাই তাদের কাছে স্বপ্নের চেয়ে বেশি ছিলো। সেই বাংলাদেশ দল নিয়ে ওই বছর অস্ট্রেলিয়াতে টেস্ট খেলতে গিয়ে খালেদ মাহমুদ সুজনের দল ২য় (vs Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy, Brisbane) এবং ৩য় (vs Northern Territory Chief Minister’s XI, Darwin) প্র্যাক্টিস ম্যাচে জয়লাভ করে। ৩য় ম্যাচ ছিলো মাইকেল ক্লার্কের নেতৃত্বের দল। ওই বছরেই এই দল মুলতানে প্রায় পাকিস্তানকে হারিয়ে দিচ্ছিলো।

অস্ট্রেলিয়ার সাথে দুই ম্যাচ ইনিংসে হারলেও আজকের মতো নির্লজ্জভাবে এভাবে কেও উইকেট বিলিয়ে দিয়ে আসে নাই। যথেষ্ট লড়াই করে, মানসম্মান নিয়ে ফিরে আসছে।

Third Umpire Dhaka

11/09/2026

03/09/2026

03/09/2026

27/08/2026

27/08/2026

27/08/2026

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22/08/2026

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