Anwarul Amin Azhar, commonly known as Azhar, is a former Bangladeshi cricketer. A right arm off-break bowler, Azhar played for the national side in the first half of the 1980s.
International career
He was a bit late coming into international cricket. He was already into his thirties when he first played for the national side. However, having waited for a long time to get his chance, he was quick to seize the opportunity presented to him. At Faridpur, playing for the Central Zone side, he took 3/24 against the MCC in 1980–81. With Obaidul Haq Azam taking 7/18, the tourists were bundled out for a 79 in their first innings. For Azhar, even bigger success came in three-day match at Rajshahi. By taking 6 wickets for 48 runs, he restricted the MCC side to 255. Azhar was a successful member of the Bangladesh cricket team that took part in the 2ndICC Trophy in England. He took 8 wickets at an average of 19.37. His economy rate was 2.44 runs per over. Anwarul Amin Azhar was a part of the Bangladesh 14 that won the 1984 South-East Asia Cup in Dhaka. But, he had little opportunity to show his class, as the team depended almost completely on its four seamers. The leg spinnerWahidul Gani impressed while playing for the Bangladesh Tigers and he was preferred to Azhar for the tour of Kenya in the spring of 1984. Azhar, however, was recalled for the home series against the Hyderabad Blues. In his final international match at Dhaka, Azhar bowed out in style. He dismissed four top-order Indian batsman, and along with leg spinner Omar Khaled Rumy put the opposition in trouble.
In the late 1970s Bangladesh had three quality spinners, Lintu, Ashraful Haque and Rumy. Things, however changed in the early 1980s. Lintu left international cricket following an altercation with the authorities, and Ashraful and Rumy were coming towards the end of their careers. Azhar was left to carry the burden of the spin bowling. He did his job manfully for the first half of the decade. Many analysts consider him to be the best Bangladeshi spinner of the 1980s. Wahidul Gani and Ramchand Goala were more successful than Azhar in domestic cricket, but they failed to deliver the goods in the international arena.
