The Bangladesh Cricket Board has been left to figure out how things went so wrong after the Bangladesh Under-19s failed to qualify for Monday’s final of the Under-19 Tri-Nation Tournament in Nottingham.
‘It was definitely disappointing,’ BCB game development chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain told New Age on Saturday. ‘I will seek an explanation from the coach [Richard McInnes] for this debacle.’
The Bangladesh Under-19s managed just a single victory in their six matches to finish with three points, with a rain-out against the undefeated Pakistan Under-19s in the first match accounting for the extra point.
That allowed the England Under-19s to reach the final with four points, beating the Junior Tigers twice in three matches to qualify.
Ashraf noted the importance of the tour for development purposes ahead of next year’s Under-19 World Cup in Dubai.
‘This was part of our preparation for the next U-19 World Cup and we have to take notice of how we eventually groom the team,’ the BCB official said.
He added that certain decisions made on the tour were strange and would need to be justified when the team returns from England.
‘In one match we opened the bowling with spinners. That seemed quite ridiculous because in those kinds of conditions you need to give the pace bowlers a go at the opponents,’ Ashraf said.
‘Still, until McInnes arrives I cannot explain the exact reason behind the failure.’
Expectations were high for the young Bangladeshi squad going into the series, but a series of poor collective performances with the bat doomed the touring side to watch the final from the stands.
The Junior Tigers were bowled out for fewer than 200 runs in five of their six matches despite demonstrating their batting prowess in their sole victory against England, posting 286-4 to win by 38 runs in Sleaford.
Outside of Mosaddek Hossain’s 110 and Sadman Islam’s 86 in that match, only one Bangladeshi batsman managed to register a half-century in the tournament when Jashimuddin scored exactly 50 runs in the eight-wicket loss to Pakistan Under-19 on August 9.
No single batsman managed to distinguish himself consistently over the course of the series, a problem which contributed to the sequence of unimpressive team totals.
‘In most [series] we come across some individual performances, but unfortunately that was not the case this time. That, I believe, is [this tour’s] only difference with earlier Under-19 tours,’ Ashraf said, comparing the players on the tour to past Under-19 successes, including Sakib al Hasan’s dominant run with the Junior Tigers in 2005.
Ashraf indicated, however, that newly-appointed Under-19 captain Mehedi Hasan was unlikely to have his position threatened by the poor tour.
‘You cannot determine a player’s capability as a captain in just one series. We decided to give him the responsibility after observing his cricket sense,’ the BCB man concluded.
-With New Age input
