Zaki’s final day at field ends in mourning

Cricket in the country took a backseat on Saturday after a heart-wrenching incident on the field left everyone in utter disbelief, shock, and grief.

Mahbub Ali Zaki, a renowned local coach and a respected figure in Bangladesh cricket, passed away at the age of 59 after suffering a cardiac arrest. The assistant coach of Dhaka Capitals in the ongoing 12th Bangladesh Premier League, Zaki collapsed while supervising his team's warm-up session ahead of their match against Rajshahi Warriors.

He was given CPR and rushed to a nearby hospital, but doctors later confirmed that he had died on the way.

Although the two scheduled matches of the day went ahead, the results felt irrelevant. Cricket seemed insignificant, and the matches felt like professional obligations, with the loss of someone who was deeply admired across the country's cricketing circles.

Several national cricketers, including Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Shoriful Islam, and Hasan Mahmud, along with Zaki's colleagues and Bangladesh Cricket Board president Aminul Islam Bulbul, rushed to the hospital, where confirmation of his death led to emotional scenes as grief overwhelmed those present.

Within hours, Zaki was back at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium -- this time for his namaz-e-janaza, where BCB officials, local and foreign players, BPL authorities, journalists and well-wishers gathered to pay their final respects. His body was later taken to his hometown Cumilla, where he will be laid to rest.

A former fast bowler, Zaki represented Cumilla in the National Cricket Championship and played for top clubs such as Abahani and Dhanmondi. After retiring, he devoted his life to coaching and joined the BCB in 2008 as a High Performance coach, playing a major role in the development of pace bowling in the country.

He was part of the coaching staff of Bangladesh's historic Under-19 World Cup-winning team in 2020 and was serving as the Specialist Pace Bowling Coach of BCB Game Development at the time of his death.

Many leading fast bowlers, including Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman, were scouted and groomed by him. For countless cricketers dealing with technical or physical issues, "Zaki sir" was the first person they turned to.

Former pupils from different generations took to social media to express their grief. Mustafizur thanked him for "helping me numerous times in my career", while Shakib Al Hasan recalled "fond memories" and reflected on how "his last moments were at a cricket ground doing the work he loved most."

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza wrote that Zaki "probably understood the biomechanics of bowling better than anyone in Bangladesh", a view shared widely across the cricketing community.

Equally admired by even the foreign coaches he had worked with, Zaki was remembered as a "mentor, a guide, and a constant source of belief during our journey to winning the 2020 U-19 World Cup in South Africa" by U-19 head coach Naveed Nawaz.

The emotional outpouring witnessed since Saturday underlines the lasting impact Zaki had on Bangladesh cricket. While his absence leaves a void in the country's coaching landscape, especially in pace bowling, the legacy he built will certainly endure beyond his passing.