The Bangladesh national cricket team returned home empty-handed on Tuesday from their just concluded tour of Zimbabwe despite being overwhelming
favourites as they failed to live upto expectations.
Bangladesh had to be content with drawing the Test and Twenty20 series while losing the one-day international series aggravated the agony of skipper Mushfiqur Rahim who suddenly announced his resignation from captaincy following Bangladesh’s 1-2 loss in the ODI series.
Mushfiqur’s resignation along with the Bangladesh Cricket Board president’s statement on the issue raised the possibility of an internal clash inside the team although the captain shrugged it off after the T20 series as well as regretting his act in the midst of the tour.
Earlier Mushfiq said that the resignation announcement was an emotional one and it was a mistake on his part to disclose the decision in the middle of the tour as he echoed the same sentiment while facing a volley of questions regarding the resignation issue upon his arrival.
‘I admit it was a mistake,’ Mushfiq told reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Tuesday.
‘I should not have announced this decision in the middle of the tour. It was indeed an emotional decision. However I will talk with the board first and then take the final decision,’ said Mushfiq.
Mushfiqur’s tenure as captain had expired after the end of the tour of Zimbabwe.
However, the skipper denied the accusation of pointing to a lack of teamwork as the major reason behind their failure as BCB president Nazmul Hasan disclosed that Mushfiqur was unhappy with the teamwork which also hinted that there might be some internal feud within the team.
‘I told him (Nazmul) that we could not perform as a team. We had some plan for every game which we could not execute in the field. That is it,’ said Mushfiq.
Mushfiq added that the Tigers had to encounter a torrid time with the practice facilities in Zimbabwe making it difficult for them to fare to the best of their abilities but refused to use it as an excuse.
‘We faced a difficult time in Zimbabwe as we did not have receive proper support from Zimbabwe,’ said Mushfiq.
‘We did not get any net bowlers and overall, there were some other issues regarding hospitality,’ he said.
‘But I don’t want to use it as an excuse because eventually we played bad cricket,’ he added.
The diminutive skipper
revealed that the umpiring issue was also a note of concern as some bad decisions went against Bangladesh which turned some games on its head completely and it continued throughout the series.
‘Most of the decisions went against us that completely changed the complexion of some games,’ said Mushfiq.
‘Everyone saw what happened there. I do not deny that we had not committed any mistakes but
the umpires only compounded our woes,’ he commented.
Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen refused to be downcast with the overall outcome of the tour and he was at pains to state the positives.
‘It is definitely not a failure (the tour). We improved from the last series than Zimbabwe. The conditions were foreign to us. We won a test match overseas, which has not happened in a couple of years,’ said an upbeat Jurgensen.
-With New Age input
