Bangladesh was bowled out for a paltry 73 by Australia who scored the runs with 82 balls to spare. The defeat was a humiliation. It also meant a 5–0 whitewash for Bangladesh in Group 2 with its worst-ever performance in a multinational cricket tournament. The crushing defeat against Australia and an embarrassing 5–0 exit from the World Cup have underlined unequivocally that Bangladesh’s cricket in the T20 format has fallen into dire straits.
Bangladesh’s cricket-crazy fans were over the moon when their team defeated the Australians 4–1 in August in Bangladesh. Little did they know that the Bangladesh Cricket Board, or the BCB, used the series to serve its self-interests. The board did not just want to win against the mighty Australians but white-wash the team as well. It wanted to do the same to the New Zealand team that followed in September. The board wanted to show the country and its political leadership how it successfully guided the Bangladesh cricket team by convincingly beating two of the most powerful cricket teams of the world.
The cricket board, therefore, was unconcerned, perhaps happy, that the two countries sent their respective second-best team to Bangladesh. It also prepared the pitches to become a paradise for Bangladesh spinners. Cricket experts and cricket journalists said little about the real intentions of the board regarding the two series. Thus, the ‘mighty’ Australians were bowled out in a match for 60 and the New Zealanders, the current ICC Test cricket champions, for 58. The board, however, did nothing illegal in preparing the pitches for its spinners because it is the unquestioned prerogative of the host board to do so.
Nevertheless, the board did so in denial of the World Cup that followed. Any other board would have used the two series to prepare its national team for the World Cup as the only rational thing to do. The humiliating defeats that Australia and New Zealand imposed on Bangladesh in the World Cup matches have now established indisputably that the board acted against the interests of the Bangladesh cricket with the two series against Australia and New Zealand to further its self-interest. It, therefore, knowingly sent to the World Cup the most unprepared team to play in the championship.
Ian Chappell said a few years ago when the Bangladesh team was showing potential in world cricket that the team ‘often threatens but seldom delivers.’ The comment appears to have become a prophecy. The Bangladesh team these days is taken seriously in the ODI and the T20 format by all cricket-playing countries. Yet, it still does not deliver which is not a mystery any more. It does not deliver because of the collective contribution to varying degrees of its stakeholders led by the cricket board, the team’s management that is chosen by the board, the cricketers themselves, Bangladeshi cricket experts/cricket journalists and unsuspecting fans.
The board’s role in the sorry state of affairs of the Bangladesh cricket, in particular in the T20 format, has been flagged by the board itself by the manner it managed the series against Australia and New Zealand. The board’s structure is also a problem for the development of cricket. In the name of democracy, the board ‘elects’ members from district associations who love cricket but understand it very little who, once in the board, easily fall under the influence of a few members who run the board as a private enterprise without accountability.
The president has held office since 2102. During this period, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have changed their respective presidents many times. The president takes immense pride in the over $105 million that the board has in fixed deposits in the bank. He seldom speaks with the same enthusiasm and pride about the board’s vision of the Bangladesh cricket. Saber Hossain, a former board president and a fellow of the incumbent president in the ruling party, has called him ‘incompetent’ and blamed him personally for Bangladesh’s ‘awful’ performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
The Bangladesh national cricketers are talented. They, nevertheless, need guidance and support to gel as a team. The board has failed to provide a coach respected by the players since Chandrika Haturasinghe’s 2014–17 term during which the Bangladesh team transformed itself into one that other teams no longer take lightly. Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza described the present team management as a ‘rehab center for South African coaches.’ Mashrafe’s comment flagged a major problem of the Bangladesh cricket that explains partly its ‘awful’ performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
The players are themselves a problem for their good and that of the team. Mushfiqur Rahim is a case in point. He was in a slump going to the World Cup. He scored a 57 not out against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh’s first game in the Super League of the T20 World Cup, his first half-century since his last one against India in 2019. A mature cricketer would have taken that as a welcome sign of returning to form. Mushfiq went to the media and taunted his critics instead, teasing them to look at their faces in the mirror to have the proverbial last laugh on them for criticizing him when he was in the slump, underlining both his inability to accept criticisms.
Mushfiq’s taunts revealed an undesirable mentality for a national cricketer. His scoop shot in the game against West Indies, which cost Bangladesh not just that game but also exit from the World Cup, is perhaps a reflection of that undesirable mentality. He was out for 8 in that game and followed it with a duck and a single in the next two games. Mushfiq’s mentality is unfortunately shared by most of the senior players, notably by the otherwise extremely talented Shakib al Hasan. These individually talented players have very little achievements as a team. Yet, the cricket board for reasons it alone can explain indulges in their dangerous and totally unacceptable mentality.
The T20 World Cup has exposed some fundamental lacunas of the Bangladesh team for the T20 format. The team does not have power hitters who bring extra runs when batting first in the death overs to make the difference between defeat and victory or win a match batting last in those death overs when the need is to achieve any run rate needed. The team’s death over bowlers has also vanished. Mustafizur Rahman’s fizz has become stale. Shakib is also no longer the death over bowler that he once was. The board sent the Bangladesh team to the World Cup blissfully unaware of these indispensable needs of the team.
Bangladesh’s pathetic performance in the T20 World Cup has underlined the fact that Bangladesh’s cricket for the T20 format and perhaps also the ODI is at crossroads. It is time to go to the drawing board with these two formats with all the stakeholders. The board’s $105 million fixed deposit should be used to provide the team with the best coach and support staff after dealing with the criticism that it has become the rehab for the South Africans. The lips of the national cricketers should be permanently sealed from speaking in the media unless authorized by the management.
The cricket ‘experts’ are a funny lot and kite-flyers and weathercocks at best. Not one of them who have appeared in long TV talk shows during the ongoing T20 World Cup was able to predict that Bangladesh would exit with its worst-ever performance in a multinational championship. A trio appearing in a Bangladesh sports channel coined a phrase ‘Bangladesh win or lose’ that suggested that they were in a test for patriotism and not for analyzing and reporting on cricket.
The lot of very talented cricketers, namely Shakib, Tamim, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah who lifted Bangladesh cricket from minnows to respectability are close to passing their prime. The new crop of national players just does not inspire confidence. Unless cricketers with talents like Shakib, Tamim and Mushfiq are delivered to the Bangladesh cricket by the Almighty, Bangladesh cricket’s future is on a bumpy and uncertain road. The board, unless overhauled, is in no position to do much.
*The writer is a former Ambassador of Bangladesh.
(The New Age Bangladesh)
November 10, 2021
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
