Cricket takes centerstage for Rubel

Rubel Hossain has maintained a low profile during the Dhaka leg of Bangladesh's World Cup training camp. Since joining the team on January 12, a day after getting bail, he had been kept away from any of the official press conferences.

In the following days, he missed just one day of training - January 14 - to get court clearance for overseas travel and was given the space to train in peace thereafter. But there has been the odd stray incident. During one of the training days, a group that entered the Shere Bangla National Stadium premises as fans, taunted Rubel when he was entering the ground from the National Cricket Academy building. He didn't react as the guard at the gate shooed them away but he looked helpless with such behaviour.

Generally, however, he has received support in social media and a fan group even went to greet him when he got out of the Central Jail on January 11. In the preceding weeks, fans in BKSP and Fatullah mentioned the name of the actress who had sued him as he took the field for Legends of Rupganj in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League.

But since he didn't talk about it, people talked about him. Finally on Wednesday, BCB's media manager Rabeed Imam escorted him to the media centre building. In the first press conference of the training camp, a question about Rubel had been posed to Arafat Sunny but it was shot down by the media manager as "unrelated". This time, it took about three minutes for the first such question to arrive.

To his credit, Rubel dealt with them well, accepting it had been a tough period, before adding that his focus remained solely on the game.

"I was mentally worried," Rubel said. "But I don't have that in my mind. I am not even thinking about it. My main target is the cricket. I am playing for my country, and I am trying to do better for the team. I have been going through a tough time but I don't want to get stuck on it.

"We have a big mission up ahead so I am focusing on how to make it successful. I have had some bad times. I express gratitude to those who stood by me. I will ask everyone to pray for me, so that I can do something in the World Cup."

Rubel had a middling 2014. He took 13 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 34.07. It was another year in which Rubel couldn't bring down his runs per over below the five-mark. He still concedes at 5.58, which sticks up like a sore thumb like his Test bowling average.

Rubel is one of the two Bangladesh bowlers, Mashrafe Mortaza being the other, to have bowled in New Zealand but he hasn't played in Australia. The Bangladesh pace bowlers have often done well in helpful conditions but last year in the West Indies they threw away a chance to cash in on a wicket that offered bounce and seam movement. Rubel said that was perhaps because they rarely get a chance to bowl in helpful conditions.

"The pace bowlers become aggressive when they see a wicket with bounce." he said. "We think of beating the batsmen, hitting them. But bowling in the right areas is more important on these surfaces.

"Australia will present us with a chance to bowl on bouncy tracks. We don't usually get them at home. We have to be clever bowling on such wickets. As a team we believe that we can get accustomed to conditions in Australia."

After the press conference, he walked back to a group of smiling teammates, who were stretching ahead of the day's training. There were a couple of greeting calls, but Rubel just kept smiling and picked up one of the rubber rollers to start his warm-up.

The next two months promises to be the most demanding of Rubel's career.