The just concluded Bangladesh-India three matches ODI serious has left behind many questions about the quality and commitment of Bangladeshi Cricketers. Bangladesh lost the rain affected series 2-0 with the third match being washed out. India sent an experimental side resting 8 of their main players with the idea to testing them against a struggling Bangladesh team. Few including this writer for justifiable reasons thought Bangladesh would win the series easily and may even whitewash under strength Indian team. But instead Bangladesh disappointed with pathetic display of spineless cricket losing the series like a very novice cricket team. Very ordinary performance of Bangladesh team has extended a pathetic term of poor performance over the last few months. The future of Bangladesh cricket would plunge into uncertainties if something serious is not done to lift Bangladesh cricket after making serious soul searching about the nature of Bangladeshi performance in the recent pass.
Bangladesh batted reasonably well in the first ODI and then bowled poorly losing the rain affected first ODI by 7 wickets on D/L method. In the second ODI the tigers batted like pussy cats losing by 47 runs even after restricting India to 105. Teenager Taskin and veteran Mashrafee bowled exceedingly well setting a very easy winning target for them. Bangladesh batting unbelievably collapsed against friendly seam bowling of Stuart Binny. In the third match Bangladesh against bowled well to reduce India to 119/9 before the match got washed out ending the miseries of Bangladesh cricket. Few believed that Bangladesh even would have won the match from this position.
Why Bangladesh failed to win the series against the under strength Indian team? Bangladesh in not distant past won against full strength India, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh also White Washed New Zealand. It is not acceptable that the same players are consistently playing so poorly in home condition. What have gone wrong? Tamim Iqbal is given opportunity to recover his form despite his repeated failures match after match; Nasir and Mahamudullah are not doing justice to their names. Mushfique and Shakib are regularly throwing away the wickets after getting set. Bangladeshi batsmen demonstrated panics and mental immaturity which have no straight forward explanations. Why Tamim could not be rested? Is he that indispensable that even after regular failures he has to be in the side? One NRB sports writer mentioned in his Facebook that even great Sachin Tendulkar would not have given so many opportunities to recover form. Persistence with pathetically out of form Tamim has not done justice to the person even. Rather a much needed rest could have given him time to recover and get out of mental stress created from failures. Why not tried and tested Imrul Kayes included in the team? Why young Shamsur Rahman Shubho not given opportunity? Ziaur Rahman gave opportunity in the first two matches as an all-rounder. But he bowled very little and failed as a batsman. Nasir in the past was a brilliant finisher with his attacking stroke play. But for a long time his bat is not talking. What has gone wrong with him? Mahmudullah is also consistently inconsistent. Opener Anamul cannot take singles and rotate the strike which is so essential in any cricket.
Mushfique and Shakib bat well but throw away the initiative after getting set for a match winning performance. All these come to batsmen with maturity. But when these players will mature? Shakib played 136 and Mushfique 132 ODIs. Bowling showed marked improvement in the last two matches after teenager Taskin was introduced and wicket suddenly started assisting pace and movement. But unfortunately batting got from worse to worst.
The ODI series has raised credible questions about team chemistry and commitment of the professional cricketers. Players’ now no longer amateur entertainers’. They are paid professionals. They are expected to play consistently well or lose the job like any other professionals. Even Doctors and Engineers can be penalized for the mistakes and poor performances why not our cricketers can be brought into accountability? The team requires through overhauling .Other than 3-4 players if others are changed with younger players there will be little difference in the team performance. But unfortunately poor planning of BCB over the past few years have failed to create a reliable pipeline of quality cricketers. The selectors are also not demonstrating wisdom in selection and at times proving bias to certain non-performers.
BCB executives must also own responsibilities. If they take credit of success why they should not own responsibility of repeated failures? Why the domestic cricket is played without proper plan of developing cricket in the truest sense? What has happened to age group cricket? What is being done with development squad? Who is handling planning and coaching? Everything seems to be in disarray. We hope that with World Cup Cricket is only three quarters of a year away Bangladesh will reassess its present position and wake up to rejuvenate the Bangladesh cricket. BCB as a whole must do soul searching or let more experienced authentic cricket enthusiasts take over. Cricket is played by cricketers on the ground but planners plot the performance on the table from behind the scene. Everything must have planning; everyone is accountable for their success and failures.
India had their purpose served from the series. They wanted to experiment with several players who are knocking at the door of the national team for a while. The series also exposed the inherent weakness of several Indian batsmen against moving deliveries on a pacey wickets. India also proved a point that there exists a huge difference in quality between the two sides.
Why the series was planned at high monsoon when rain is an everyday affair in Bangladesh? Was it planned for Indians to experiment few options? Are we being dictated by BCCI? This series has done more bad than good. Given the demoralized state of Bangladesh team from miserable performances in Sri Lanka series, Asia Cup and T 20 World cup team should been given some breathing time to regroup. The new coaching team should have given time to work with the team.
We do not know how the team management of Bangladesh would assess the performance of the team. But importantly new coaching team can assess the strength and weakness of the team from the performance. The team badly needs psychiatric treatment. With such a level of mental toughness Bangladesh may face miserable situation in the World Cup at Australia New Zealand for which proper planning must have started already.
BDST: 0956 HRS, JUN 20, 2014
