Cricketer Mashrafe Mortaza vows to shine in Bangladesh politics as well

Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza says he is keen to replicate his cricketing success in politics.

He won a seat in the 11th parliamentary election by defeating his rivals by a massive margin.

 “I’ll continue to play both in sports and politics. I’ll try to do well in these two fields,” he said after taking oath as a member of parliament on Thursday.

The strapping pacer, known as the ‘Narail Express’, will play in sixth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League that will begin on Jan 5.

The cricketer promised that he would work for the welfare of the people as a public representative.

“The responsibility has increased a lot. I will try to work here (as a public representative) much the same way I’ve done in my sporting career, "he said after winning the election on Sunday.

The popular cricketer fetched 34 times more votes as a ruling Awami League candidate for the Narail-2 seat than his nearest rival the Jatiya Oikya Front alliance’s Fariduzzaman Farhad.

He got 271,210 votes while Farhad, the chairman of NPP, bagged 7,883 votes with the ‘paddy sheaf’ symbol.