Saber on Greenidge (27 June 1999)

27 June 1999

Saber on Greenidge

Nizamuddin Ahmed

June 26: Bangladesh coach Gordon Greenidge had "protested vehemently" about the inclusion of Minhazul Abedin in the World Cup squad, saying that the senior batsman was "not good enough as a bat, not good enough as a bowler".

This was revealed by the BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury when he was responding to the West Indian coach's outburst against the board in local Bangla weeklies. (There is no Bangla daily in the UK.)

Minhazul Abedin, a former captain, first ignored from the selection of nineteen, who was made to sit on the bench in the World Cup match against New Zealand despite being in the fifteen, but was included against West Indies in the second "on the insistence of board officials", proved to be the single-handed match-winning man-of-the-match in the third match against Scotland, followed up with another defiant fifty against the marauding Australians in the fourth and was notably successful against Pakistan in the epic match at Northampton.

"As a protest against Minhazul's inclusion in the second match versus West Indies, Gordon did not attend the important selection meeting before the match with Scotland," said Saber. Greenidge also skipped subsequent team management meetings.

Responding to Greenidge's assertion that the board "management was a problem", Saber said, "As the board president I was compelled to get involved when selection was not being handled in the right way, when I saw problem in the team management and training".

Saber could not fathom what Greenidge meant by "two-three players were not allowed to play" in this World Cup as reported here, adding, "all the fifteen in the squad had played".

About Greenidge's assertion that both he and the board were humiliated by excluding him from an international tournament, Saber said, "Gordon did not act in a responsible manner. He failed in his obligations. As an employee of the BCB, he was accountable to it. Our responsibility is to get the job done".

On the coach's remark that he could have been sacked after returning to Bangladesh, Saber replied, "We did not remove him as coach. He is our coach by contract till June. We only relieved him of World Cup management".

Gordon Greenidge was considering litigation regarding his sacking by the BCB. His solicitor had earlier called BCB, which informed him that Greenidge had taken his pay-cheque till the month of June as coach of Bangladesh before leaving Dhaka for the World Cup in mid-April.

Greenidge is under contract with the BCB, and paid for, till end-June, but according to reports here, he has already accepted the Nottingham offer of batting coach. It was not clear whether the Sherwood forest contract will resume after June or before.

Meanwhile Greenidge seemed to have a developed a change of heart about the standard of Bangladesh cricket. The same coach, who had dubbed the Dublin match against West Indies as an encounter of "men against boys" and had subsequently stated that Bangladesh were "not ready" and "not capable", now considered Bangladesh "a good team" and said at a London reception, "I always knew they could do it".

Source :: The Daily Star