Beyond the boundary - Our cricket needs a shakeup (23 March 1999)

23 March 1999

Beyond the boundary - Our cricket needs a shakeup

Shakil Kasem

As a nation we are well known for not looking too far beyond our noses. In our social and national life, short term gains and interests are the basic order of the day. For obvious reasons I shall not venture to comment further, other than to mention that we are not particularly averse to employing whatever means required to achieve these goals. Implications of such an approach we then leave to the future to judge. We regret at leisure.

In keeping with another of our widely acknowledged traits, which is our inordinately high level of national innocence and naivete, we had celebrated our "success" in achieving ODI status with elaborate pomp and fanfare a couple of seasons ago. We have since then played twenty-seven ODI's in which our solitary win must be viewed more as an aberration that an achievement. We are now headed full tilt, all systems go, towards achieving Test status. Our bark is also worse than our bite.

Considering what was on display against Pakistan, Kenya and Zimbabwe over the last week it is obvious that the meltdown of our playing standards have been starkly evident, from the ordinary to the pathetic. It is important for all and sundry to determine why there has been such a decline in less than a year.

As far as the three matches were concerned, Pakistan were predictably patronising in their approach and attitude. A batting line-up that gifts wickets to bowlers the likes of Saeed Anwar & Co., who are at best impostors of the art of any kind of bowling, does not really get too many brownie points for credibility. The match therefore was a foregone conclusion, the less said about it the better.

What is of concern however is the manner in which Bangladesh went down to Kenya. Even as someone watching the match from the safe confines of my home on TV, I was mesmerised by the savage ferocity of the Kenyan storm that fairly ravaged the Bangladesh team on our very own home ground. Bangladesh was outplayed and outgunned in every department of the game, the difference in class there for all to see. There is no shame in admitting that we were cut down to size by a team that knew exactly what they were doing. We, on the other hand, were clueless.

Against Zimbabwe we had the same odds for survival as a snowball had in hell. We have cultivated the art of giving away six-plus runs per over when bowling, and scoring less than half of that whilst batting. Not what you might call good business sense at this level of the game. The only discomfort the Zimbabwean captain faced during the day, was at the post match press conference. He had to come up with suitably polite and diplomatically correct replies when asked what he thought about his opponents.

Cricket lovers, fans of Bangladesh cricket, and the paying public are now like jilted lovers, anguished, aggrieved and increasingly frustrated at the turnaround of their team. The side is presently meandering through the maze of international competitions in a manner that can only charitably be termed purposeless. It does not seem to have a plan of action, has no sense of direction, and is bereft of confidence. Our team is like a random blip on the radar screen of international cricket.

There is too much reliance placed on a non-existent team management, whose commitment and credibility are quite obviously in short supply. It is time now to ask some pertinent questions. Is the team in the right hands? What exactly is the role of the coach of this side? Has he given any time frame when this side is likely to show any results? In this fiercely competitive and profit-oriented world, performances count for everything. Nothing more, nothing less. There are countless instances around the world of team management having to give way because they have failed to deliver the goods. So why must we overstress this concept of Eastern hospitality and polite wishy-washy overtures?

If the present coach has any reservations and /or misgivings about the role he has been asked to perform by the Board, then he should either sort it out to his satisfaction or hand over charge to another individual who would be willing to work under the existing set of circumstances.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh team has been repeating basic errors in every department of the game. There is no evidence to suggest that there is a game plan for any match. The players seem totally lost and out of focus on the field. There is a crisis in leadership; somebody is not doing a good job of providing the necessary motivation. The coach has not, for once, come out, in print or otherwise, about the direction this team is likely to take. If he chooses to sulk in private, that is his prerogative, but the team should not suffer in public as a result.

One has been given to understand umpteen times in the past, that the present coach is also serving the Board as Director of Coaching. Why should that position be the criterion for him to coach the national team as well? This Directorate should be the focus of all coaching activities, planning and training of all possible and potential players who will perhaps one day be good enough to play representative cricket. The Director's function should be to evolve, implement and oversee that a particular system is operating effectively to that end. And here the line should be drawn. How the 15 or so players chosen by the national selectors should perform as a team at the topmost level should be a job given to a specialist. This individual must be result-oriented and have an established track record in this particular role at the international level.

Bangladeshis have achieved most things in life the hard way. Why should our cricketers by any different? Their road to success should be hard and rocky but it must be the right one. With no short cuts, and with a guide who is knowledgeable about the terrain and knows where he is going and when he might get there.

Let's find such a man. Quickly. We have a bridge to cross and a bus to catch.

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