Aftab Ahmed (Bangladeshi cricketer)

Aftab Ahmed Chowdhury (Bengali: আফতাব আহেমদ চৌধুরী, born 10 November 1985) is a former Bangladeshi cricketer. He is a right hand batsman and right arm medium bowler. In August 2014, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after 2014/15 domestic season to focus on coaching.

Aftab Ahmed was born and spend most of his childhood in Chittagong. His first school was St. Mary's School. In his early days Aftab was careless about playing international cricket and even thought of it as a torture. He even refused to get admitted into BKSP as he had to leave his family and friends for it. But his father was valiant fan of sports and wanted his son to become a cricketer.

Aftab remained passive about his cricketing career and have the record of leaving camp. He was also frustrated about the camps as he was not selected. He said, "I was called many times in the camp but never got a chance in the team." But his waiting paid dividend when he finally received a call from the team.

One day as he was playing he received a long awaiting call from the national team. But his father who played a major role in his emerging was unable to hear the announcement. He died during the 1999 Cricket World Cup

He made his international debut at the 2004 Champions Trophy, and, despite scoring a thirteen-ball duck was persisted with owing to good performances at Under-19 level for Bangladesh. In only his third match of his career he took five wickets to become the first Bangladeshi bowler to achieve this feet in ODI. With his gentle medium pace he took 5 for 31 against New Zealand in the second of three ODI between the two teams, which has led him to bowl ten overs in most Bangladeshi games.

His record breaking success earned him a man of the match award in that match against New Zealand. Though he got early success with bowl in hand he still considered him as a batsman who can bowl a bit. He first major success with the bat came in at one of the historical moments of Bangladesh cricket. In the 100th ODI match of Bangladesh, Ahmed scored his maiden fifty which later proved to vital as Bangladesh narrowly beat India by 14 runs in that match.