Bangladesh’s success in cricket is due to their passionate support base from different corners, said an Australian researcher representing the International Cricket Council.
Sheila Nguyen is leading a research team of Australia’s Deakin University that arrived in Bangladesh to prepare a report on Bangladesh’s success story in order to show it to other emerging cricketing nations.
Sheila, who arrived on Tuesday, said that she was impressed with administrators in her first day of the four-day visit and felt that the Tigers are reaping success as there are lot of enthusiasms and passion for the sport.
‘You have the perfect match between the three elements – culture that value cricket, government that supports cricket and the commercial side that helps build infrastructure,’ said Sheila.
‘I was really excited coming here and what I have learnt in less than 12 hours is amazing meeting the administrators here,’ she said.
Sheila, the director of the masters of business (sport management) programme of the Melbourne-based University, went into business straightway by interviewing several Bangladesh Cricket Board officials.
She is expected to visit officials of National Sports Council as ICC has chosen Bangladesh as the role model for developing cricket nations.
‘Cricket is a sport that is spreading across the world. At the moment there are so many countries that are developing for the love of cricket,’ said Sheila.
‘Bangladesh had that for many years. Because of the success of Bangladesh we are interested in seeing their history.
‘We can learn about the growth and what are the factors that contributed for their success.
‘Passion comes from a culture that is built around something valued by the country. In Bangladesh cricket is the number one sports in the country,’ she added.
Sheila said that they are looking forward to seven countries primarily to share their experience into developing cricket across their country.
Nepal, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Papua New Guinea are six other countries where her research team will visit to gather information.
‘Bangladesh is the role model for other countries and that is something Bangladesh can be really proud off,’ she said.
For their research, Sheila and her team will collect two different types of data from all stakeholders who are divided in 10 segments.
‘We will talk with participants about how the game impacted their lives,’ said the US-born researcher.
Sheila found already that cricket is more than a religion in Bangladesh.
‘I took an interesting interview today when I was told one can share their feeling in cricket field here without being concerned about his class or religion,’ she said.
Former national captain Aminul Islam is co-ordinating the programme as a development officer of ICC for the Asia Pacific region.
-With New Age input
