Career
A tall, technically correct, right-handed batsman, standing at 6 ft 2 in tall, he played 19 one-day internationals scoring 532 runs at an average of 29.55 with a highest score of 82. Throughout the 80s Athar played as a middle order batsman, batting mostly at Number. 4 or 5. Later on, encouraged by the Indian Test Cricketer, Mohinder Amarnath, Athar started opening regularly for Bangladesh.
He was a slow medium pacer taking six wickets in ODI matches.
He is Bangladesh cricket team"s national selector and a cricket commentator. He is also the head coach of Bangladesh Premier League franchise Duronto Rajshahi.
In 1984, Athar played for the Bangladesh Tigers in the first South East Asian Cup. A year later he played in the 3 Day match against Sri Lanka in Dhaka.
In the semi-final, against Dhaka district, Athar scored 155 and shared a record stand of 447 with Tariquzzaman Munir (308).
In October 1988, he was Bangladesh"s best performer in the Wills Asia Cup at Dhaka. He scored 16 against India, 22 against Pakistan and 30 against Sri Lanka.Then on the final day of 1990, he entertained the huge 50,000-strong crowd at Eden Garden, Calcutta with a score of 78* against Sri Lanka. His innings included three huge sixes.
Although Bangladesh lost the match, Athar was adjudged the Manitoba-of-the-Match.
Athar"s highest ODI score (82) came against Pakistan in 1997. He was involved with another century partnership a year later.
Against Kenya, he put on 137 for the first wicket with Mohammad Rafiq. Athar"s own contribution was 47.
His best bowling in ODI was 2/33 against India at Mohali in 1997.
Sourav Ganguly was one of his victims. Athar played for Bangladesh in three Interstate Commerce Commission Trophy tournaments, in England in 1986, in Kenya in 1994 and finally in Malaysia in 1997. He had a disappointing time in England in "86, as he lost his place in the side midway through the trophy, due to lack of form.
He had scored only 55 runs from 5 innings.
The wet conditions in England didn"t suit Athar"s batting technique. After being overlooked for the 1990 trophy in Netherlands, Athar returned for 1994 tournament in Kenya.
There also, he failed to live up to the expectations, scoring only 90 runs from 6 innings. However, Athar played a big part in Bangladesh"s success 3 years later.
1988 was a highly successful year for Athar Ali Khan.
First, at the 2nd South East Asian Cup at Hong Kong Athar scored 92 not out against Hong Kong, 69 not out against Singapore in the League matches and followed these with 64 in the final against Hong Kong. He was adjudged the Manitoba-of-the-Match for the final. Athar played for Bangladesh in 3 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation cricket tournaments in Dhaka.
He studied public administration at Dhaka University.