Sunny's moment in the sun

On February 6 this year, Arafat Sunny completed 12 years of first-class cricket and it was only a day before that he came to know of his inclusion in the team for the Sri Lanka T20 series.
Despite the opportunity Sunny kept his emotions in check at the time and cautiously chose his words while speaking to the media. It was only natural for a person who has been in the domestic circuit for so long.  
“The cycle of my career goes like this, I get noticed once in every four years and then I just get back to playing domestic cricket. I actually had made up my mind just to be a good domestic player,” Sunny told reporters before the series.
However, all those emotions – reined in for the last twelve years -- seemed to have gushed out at one go when Nasir Hossain grasped on to a brilliant catch at deep backward square leg to dismiss Seekkuge Prasanna and give Sunny his maiden wicket in his first international over.  
His celebration -- he bent down on one knee and punched the air -- said it all.    
With a bowling average hovering around the 22-mark in all the three formats of the game, Sunny has been a perennial performer in domestic cricket.
However, the one major factor that worked against Sunny was that he was just another slow-left armer in a long list of such bowlers. In order to make the national team that has the likes of Abdur Razzak, Shakib Al Hasan -- and even Elias Sunny in the recent past -- Sunny needed a bit of fortune, apart from doing something magnificent in domestic cricket.
The fortune came in the form of Razzak's hamstring injury during the second Test, which brought Sunny in the spotlight. As for his performance, the statistics say it all.
He was a dominant figure in first class cricket in the last two seasons. The year 2011 saw him take 50 wickets at an average of 20.36 and in the following season he picked 21 at an average of 21. His performance in the Dhaka Premier League last year was what seemed to have clinched it -- he took the league-highest 29 wickets at an average of 19.13.
With figures of two for 17 in three overs yesterday, sunny proved to be more than a handful for the hosts. While there is still a long way to go before he can be a permanent feature in the side, he has at least had the start that he has been longing for, and sometimes that is all that one needs in cricket.