Stay at home to win the war: Mashrafe

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza may have stepped down as the captain of the Bangladesh ODI team earlier this month, but the inspirational cricketer, who is also an elected MP, is still doing his bit as a leader.

Mashrafe, under whose captaincy numerous young talents flourished and made a name for themselves in the Bangladesh team, has once again put his faith on the youth of this country, calling on them to take measures against coronavirus and exercise self-isolation by staying home to help prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

The 36-year-old borrowed a verse from the famous poem 'Nishiddho Shompadokiyo' by the famous poet Helal Hafiz. However, in light of the current situation, Mashrafe slightly tweaked the words of the poem while keeping the message of the poem intact.

The original two lines of the poem that Mashrafe borrowed, read: Ekhon joubon jar, michile jawar sreshtho somoy tar. Ekhon joubon jar, juddhe jawar sreshtho shomoy tar. Roughly translated, it means 'Now is the best time for young men to go to the procession. Now is the best time for a young man to go to war'

But Mashrafe wrote on his official Facebook page: "Ekhon joubon jar, bashay thakar tar sreshtho somoy [It is the best time for the youth to stay at home]. Be safe. Be at home".

The inspirational leader asked the youth of this country to stay at home as that is now the best way to fight this virus. It might be a challenge for the enthusiastic youth of the country to stay put at home for days to come, but according to Mashrafe, it is the youth who need to take this challenge and win this war against this contagious virus.