Bangladesh: We need a cricket manager (19 Sep 1998)

19 September 1998

We need a cricket manager

By Nizamuddin Ahmed

It had to happen, some good news after two apparently justifiable defeats and one clueless murder - that executed by Northern Ireland. Test-playing New Zealand were booked for 58. So, why can't Bangladesh be sent home with 63, eh? At least it takes our name off the register for scoring the lowest ever total in Commonwealth cricket.

Actually, we are a nation of (unrealistic) optimistic zealots. How much did we think we should have scored? What could we say had we been all out against Northern Ireland for fewer than 50 runs? Would we not have said that at least sixty runs would have been better? Well, now we have three runs more than that.

Frankly, I don't understand what the fuss is all about. What is wrong in losing to another associate member of the ICC in hot, sultry weather that the Irish have never experienced? What is wrong with being terrified of a paceman who is not even related to Akram or Srinath? What's so demeaning in being defeated in a cricket match that is not even labelled 'first class'? Everything, if you ask an optimist like me.

The pessimists, on the other hand, are content because their foreboding omen was destined to materialise.

So we lost a cricket match. We have not been defeated in, say carom, or bagaduli. I am not at all bothered about the defeat. I am terrified of the aftermath. Forget about ex-cricketers and ex-selectors and ex-BCB members and ex-cricket fans and ex-readers of cricket news. They will always grumble and find faults.

What worries me, and to some extent I find annoying, is Bangladesh manager Tanveer Haider's rash remarks after the Irish shame that the cricketers he led to the Commonwealth Games are 'second class'. He has done it for the second time. The first was after the disastrous tour of Ireland, England and Scotland earlier when he along with some other BCB officials outrageously castigated Coach Gordon Greenidge and the fallen players publicly. And now after the Kuala jwala.

According to press reports, Mr. Haider thinks the cricketers he led to Malaysia have 'no technique, it is not right to expect anything of this team, they are not in a position to play cricket at this level, they lack self-confidence'. Phew!

Being an ex-cricketer of some repute, did it take Mr. Haider a whole trip to discover the drawbacks of his team? Being a BCB vice-president he could have even advocated that these 'second class' cricketers should not form part of his travel luggage. He is not even willing to give credit to the bowlers. That performance against South Africa was no mean feat.

But, does Mr. Haider only complain? Not necessarily. He takes credit for Bidyut's innings of 70 to the extent that he had to do a lot of hard work to that end. Manager's do not accompany a team for any other purpose.

Occasionally we have heard our cricket manager cite three aspects of cricket as our weak point - batting, bowling and fielding. That is precisely the point. The manager shaheb is missing a vital point - that of motivating his players to rise above themselves and do a first class job. It has happened. Not to us, but to many other teams in all sorts of games. Managers in winning countries do not play games with their players.

Think of World Cup winning French manager Aime Jaquet. Recollect him prancing in the arena designated just outside the sideline, recall him huffing and puffing and yelling to his players of the calibre of Blanc, Thuram and Zidane. Could they hear what he was saying? No! But, when the corner of eye catches your manager pulling his hair out, you can jump above the world and even manage to humiliate the best. Zidane and his friends did just that.

If we lack technique, if we are not capable of playing front foot, if we are incompetent in batting, fielding and bowling, then the only thing that can make us win matches is team spirit. If anything, that is what has been lacking in the Bangladesh team.

Comments of the nature spewed by Mr. Tanveer do nothing to bolster team or individual moral. Quite the contrary.

Gazi Ashraf has been a long-time manager and Oh! My God! the coach to Malaysia. Perhaps the best outcome of the Commonwealth debacle has been his very bold and timely decision to disassociate from national cricket. He is the first Bangladeshi to behave like a true gentleman. We have had train accidents, disaster in the power sector, law and order chaos, mess in the universities; but no minister, not even a junior officer thought him responsible to resign. Gazi Ashraf will go down (no pun intended) in history as having done a very honourable thing although his failure as an administrator may balance the palla

Gazi Ashraf is a soft-spoken person. Too soft, some would say. He is perhaps not the right type to imbue, inject, and infuse vitality into a side that lacks everything, according to the admission of some BCB officials. We need someone who can get out hundred percent from a chap who is not capable of even giving ten percent. We need a manager who can make first class players from second class material. After all, a manager worth his salt does not only bask in the achievements of his players. He takes responsibility when HIS players fail. He is a good manager who realises HIS players failed because HE FAILED.

Only seven months remain to the World Cup in England. What is our aim when we face the might of the game, not Northern Ireland! We want to prove that we can give a fight, that we tried, that in ten years time we could be a force to reckon with. We want to scare everyone out there just a wee little bit. But, can we do that without someone who can light fire in cricket's ashes? Someone who can make them look a man-eating tiger in the eyes.

We need a manager, not a critic. Of the latter breed we have plenty, including me.

Source :: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)