The First South-East Asian Cricket Tournament was held in Dhaka in January 1984. Two teams from the host country were joined by teams from Singapore and Hong Kong. The Bangladesh national team won the trophy, and thus qualified for the 1986 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.
The organizers suffered an early setback when Malaysia, one of the stronger cricketing nations of the Far East, withdrew at the last moment. Apart from Dhaka, Chittagong and Mymensingh hosted some games. The Bangladesh national team, however, played all its fixtures at the capital.
Scores in brief
As the scores suggest, the Bangladesh national team was far superior to any of its opposition. Yousuf Rahman and Gazi Ashraf dominated the top order batting. In the latter matches, Belayet Hossain Belal and Nehal Hasnain came good. In contrast the two veterans, skipper Raquibul Hasan & Omar Khaled Rumy were very disappointing. The bowling was dominated by the seamers, young Golam Faruq impressed with his hat-trick against Singapore. Jahangir Shah came good in the final.
The Bangladesh Tigers (led by Sadrul Anam) mostly included young players; players like Minhajul Abedin, Azhar Hossain, Athar Ali Khan, Gholam Nousher, Wahidul Gani, etc., who would serve Bangladesh cricket with great distinction over the next decade or so. Rafiqul Alam, the most experienced player of side, enjoyed a good tournament with both bat and ball. The highlight of his performance was a brilliant 129 against hapless Singapore. He shared a record 208 run partnership for the 5th wicket with WK batsamn Hafizur Rahman Sani(75). Hafiz impressed with both his keeping and batting, and was soon promoted to the national team duty. Minhajul Abedin Nannu performed consistently. At his hometown Chittagong, he delighted his fans with a classy 44 against Hong Kong in the 1st game. In the bowling department, brilliant, but often erratic leggie Wahidul Gani was consistently amongst the wickets.
Hong Kong got better and better as the tournament progressed. Peter Wood was their most consistent batsman. Teenager Simon Miles showed his promise with a hundred against Singapore. Chris Collins was the fastest bowler in the tournament, and in almost all the matches he gave his side early breakthroughs. Collin Swan and Jenkins also bowled well, and Peter Andersson impressed as an allrounder. Singapore was the weakest team in the tournament, and ended the cup without any wins.