Everyone will have to leave someday: Mashrafe on future
The second ODI between Bangladesh and the West Indies was in many fans' mind the last game of captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The skipper himself said that while it was an emotional matter to deal with, he did not yet decide whether he was retiring but did admit that watching the fans become emotional would have made him emotional as well.
"It's very normal [becoming emotional] since we are emotional. Ofcourse it's normal to be touched by this things. If it happened in front of me, I would have felt it too," Mashrafe commented on how he felt about some of the fans getting emotional as this may have been the cricketer's last match at SBNCS.
The inspirational cricketer had already retired from T20 cricket and after his latest foray into politics -- the ODI captain is set to take part in the upcoming elections from the side of the ruling Awami League, not many sees continuing on after the World Cup.
Mashrafe put things into perspective in a philosophical manner. "It's true that there are things to feel good about and also bad. From my side I also feel for them [the fans]. It's a natural process though, everyone has to leave one day. It's been more than a year since I left the T20s. I am playing ODIs now and maybe I will play for some more days," he said.
On whether this was his last match at Mirpur given that the third ODI is in Sylhet and Bangladesh do not have any home ODI series before the World Cup, Mashrafe said he was undecided.
"It's difficult to say whether it was my last. I have said it many times that I don't do things by deciding early. It might be that I may leave cricket if I don't feel well after the next match. I go with my instant gut feeling so saying something on this is difficult. I don't think about this things."
However even as he was not thinking of this things, he said it was emotional for him as well to think about leaving. "If these things [fans getting emotional] happened in front of me then both parties would have become a bit soft. So no matter how good the feeling [of being loved by fans] it would also be a difficult moment," Mashrafe said.