The first cricket coach of independent Bangladesh Syed Altaf Hossain has died.
He breathed his last on Tuesday night at a hospital in the capital at the age of 81.
He was also the first cricketer from then East Pakistan to get a call-up to a 14-man squad for the Pakistan national team in 1965 against New Zealand.
He was born in 1938 in Hooghly. Altaf was a National Sports Award recipient in 1999.
He was also certified as a first-class umpire by the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan in 1970.
After Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971, cricketing activities were stalled in the new nation till 1973, and it was Altaf who spearheaded its revival by joining the Bangladesh Krira Parishad as the first cricket coach of Bangladesh.
Later on, he was instrumental in getting the women’s game off the ground in the country.
His fondest dream was to see the Bangladesh cricket team rise to the top of world cricket.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) expressed their deep shock over the death of Altaf.