CHENNAI: Posted as a Naik with Bangladesh Army, Showkat Ali of Habiganj district in Sylhet division, Bangladesh was not fond of cricket. Instead, he liked football. But his two sons among five siblings wanted to be cricketers. Shaker Ali, the eldest of the two, had already started playing cricket at the district level and his younger brother Jaker was secretly following him.

Incidentally, a football coach from England arrived there to train local kids in an academy. Showkat immediately got Jaker admitted to the academy, hoping his youngest child would become a footballer. Destiny, however, had something else in store both for Showkat and Jaker.

Years later, Jaker is in India on his maiden Test call-up and can only imagine how proud his father would be to see him playing for Bangladesh in the longest format of the game. Showkat passed away due to a kidney ailment seven years ago but not before watching Jaker climbing up the ladders laying a solid foundation for himself in the world of cricket. “My father would have been immensely proud watching Jaker play for the national team,” Shakila Boby, Jaker’s elder sister, told this daily.

A journalist with a local newspaper, Shakila has witnessed the journeys of brothers Shaker and Jaker from close quarters. In between Shaker changed his path but Jaker stood his ground. “I still remember vividly how Jaker asked me to speak to father to let him play cricket. At that time, he was at the football academy but was accompanying Shaker for cricket matches as the 12th man of the team. Father relented and allowed him to continue his passion,” she reminisced.