Three Bangladesh captains lost their job for opting to bowl first in a Test match and two of them – Naimur Rahman and Habibul Bashar – are here in West Indies now in different roles.
The other captain to suffer the fate, Khaled Mahmud, has now a policy making role in the Bangladesh Cricket Board as a director and head of an important standing committee.It is unlikely they will allow Mushfiqur Rahim to face such an ignominy in the middle of the series as Bangladesh cricket has put such amateurish days long behind. But Mushfiq will make a mistake if he thinks he will not have to give any explanation for repeating the blunder.
His decision to bowl first with three-and-a-half bowlers – two of them being debutants – is the only talking point in St Vincent after Bangladesh could pick up just three wickets in two days.
The ordinary bowling performance in the first two days in an overcast condition also raised a question whether Bangladesh have made any real progress in the past one decade and a half since they achieved the Test status in 2000.
And the question came from none other than Naimur, the first Test captain and now a BCB director, who is now in St Vincent as an observer.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan sent Naimur on his own initiative after the disaster in the one-day international series. The idea of sending an observer is nothing new in Bangladesh, but here Naimur’s role is more of an investigator, who was given the special task to find out why Bangladesh are committing blunders one after another.
Naimur refused to share his findings with the media but made certain observations which only highlighted the grim reality.
‘I think we are short in quality,’ Naimur told reporters in St Vincent on Saturday. ‘There are few good players who are not in form. But batsman, bowler fielder whoever you are, I think to be successful at this level you have to have something extraordinary. We have very few extraordinary talents. We need many more.
‘You look at the West Indies team. They also do not have any extraordinary players. But they always try to keep a minimum standard. You can see it when they play against top teams.
‘We cannot play with confidence even against the ICC associate members, but they can. This is how you can realise the difference of standard. But they don’t get more facilities than us. I think our quality is not up to the mark.’
Naimur took a swipe at Mushfiq for his negative leadership which was exposed by his toss decision.
‘If I play with eight batsmen, I will rely on batting,’ said the former captain. ‘I am not going to say if the decision is right or wrong. But I think we have become too negative these days.’
Naimur, also a former selector, who will return after the first Test, said he will soon give his report to the board.
‘I have spoken to the management and the players. There are a few questions which I cannot even ask them directly. I will share this with the board. I don’t want to give it to the media now,’ he said.
-With New Age input
