Nazrul Kader
Nazrul Kader, also known as Lintu, was a left arm spin bowler from Bangladesh. He was a member of the Bangladesh cricket team that played against the MCC in the historical match at Dhaka in 1976-77.
Bowling action
Though he was a spin bowler, he had the fast run up of a left arm seamer. Unlike most other left arm spinners, he mostly bowled over the wicket. He was quicker than most spinners, and he surprised many batsman with his pace. He also had a good "Chinaman" (the wrong one of the left arm spinner).[1]
International career
He had a brief, but highly successful international career. In the historical match at Dhaka, he was the most successful bowler for the local side taking 4/54. In February 1978, he bowled well against the touring Decan Blues side of India. After the match the Indian captain, Ajit Wadekar described him as the best Bangladeshi bowler.
Lintu enjoyed his most successful season in 1978-79, against the touring MCC side. His figures include, 4/49 at Jessore, 5/67 at Rajshahi, 4/58 at Chittagong, 3/79 and 3/29 at Dhaka. With his spinning partners, Omar Khaled Rumy and Ashraful Haque giving him excellent support, he completely mesmerized the MCC batsman. Only the former test players, Conrad Hunte (West Indies) and John Jameson (England) showed the necessary technique to handle him.
The spinning trio
At a time when the famed spinning quartet of India, (Chandra, Bedi, Prasanna and Venkat) were coming to the ends of their careers, the spinning trio of Bangladesh were just beginning to make their mark on international cricket. Helping Nazrul Kader, was Omar Khaled Rumy (leg-spin/googly), and Syed Ashraful Haq (orthodox off-spin). Especially during the 78-79 season the trio was in full flow. The slow turning pitches were suitable to them. At Jessore Rumy (4/30) and Lintu (4/49) bowled the MCC out for only 166. At Dhaka, Lintu with 3/79, Rumy with 3/63 and Ashraful with 2/1 bowled the opposition for a mere 210. The trio were lucky to have Shafiq-ul-Haq Hira behind the stumps, as Hira was an expert in keeping to the slow bowlers. Keeping to Lintu was a special challenge, because of his extra pace, but Hira was up to the task.[2]
An abrupt end
During the summer of 1979, Bangladesh made their international debut abroad taking part in the first ICC Trohpy in England. With the successes against the MCC behind him, Lintu was a certainty for the tour. Yet, when the team was announced astonishingly his name was missing. It was a sort of a disciplnary action for his missing the month-long physical training camp. Now, Lintu apart from being a brilliant left arm spinner, was a highly meritorious student. At that time, he was studying engineering at BUET. Attending the camp would have meant missing a whole academic year.
This exclusion pretty much ended Lintu's brief international career. Soon, he went abroad for further studies, and instead of concentrating on cricket he pursued his career as an engineer. This decision, though sad, wasn't uncommon in the 70s and 80s. With Bangladesh cricket very much at the amateur stages, a number of other cricketers (Mainu, Shirazi, Misha to name a few) gave their professional career greater importance than cricket. Things only changed in later part of the 80s.[3]
Lintu's unfortunate departure was a big loss for Bangladesh cricket. Bangladesh had to wait for another decade before the arrival of the next quality left-arm spinner (Enamul Haq Moni). Even now, many consider Lintu to be the greatest left-arm spinner to come from Bangladesh.