It was within the spring of 1986 that the Bangladesh males’s cricket staff would play their first ever match in opposition to a full-time ICC member. The victory within the South-East Asian Cricket Conference Tournament two years prior had ensured Bangladesh certified for a contest known as Asia Cup. In the years to come back, the staff and the match would outline one another’s tales to a good bigger extent.
Team #Bangladesh are in full prep mode forward of their begin to the DP World Asia Cup 2022 🏆
Looking sharp, boys! 👏💪#BANvAFG #AsiaCup2022 #ACC #GetReadyForEpic
— AsianCricketCouncil (@ACCMedia1) August 29, 2022
Hosting the competitors for the third time in 2012, Bangladesh would register their third ODI wins in opposition to the 2 World Cup finalists from a yr in the past earlier than shedding the ultimate in opposition to Pakistan by a mere two runs, letting the continent’s main cricketing powers know that they had been very a lot right here. Silverware eluded the staff however over the subsequent three editions of the match, considered one of which was a T20 first, they might play two extra finals, additional establishing that fame that they had created within the early a part of the last decade.
However, as they march into the fifteenth version of their favourite competitors, the state of Bangladesh cricket couldn’t have been extra chaotic. It was solely two weeks in the past that Shakib Al Hasan was named because the T20 captain for the Asia Cup and the World Cup later in October. This was adopted by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan asserting to the media that head coach Russell Domingo received’t be touring alongside the staff for the continental match. Sridharan Sriram had as an alternative been appointed as technical advisor for T20s.
“There’s not going to be a head coach,” stated Hassan. “We have a batting coach, a spin coach, fast bowling coach and fielding coach. We have the captain. We also have a technical consultant for T20s. He will give the game plan. We will have the team director, Jalal (Yunus, BCB’s cricket operations chairman) and myself. Who else do we need?”
“Who else do we need?”
That final line is definitive of Hassan’s over nine-year reign as BCB President. The 61-year-old has been identified to carry the strings of not simply the general sporting construction as President but in addition having his say by way of staff alternatives, brazenly criticizing the staff and the administration on not simply their performances however even for not consulting him with reference to the XI.
Bangladesh’s head coach Russell Domingo watch gamers bat within the nets throughout a coaching session. (AP Photo)
An ODI defeat in opposition to Sri Lanka as a part of a bilateral collection had led to the BCB President referring to among the Bangladesh staff dismissals as ‘ugly’. One might solely have hoped for the wrath of the sky falling down on the gamers and the administration submit a horrid T20 World Cup marketing campaign in UAE final yr, the place they misplaced all 5 of their Super 12 fixtures. A two-member ‘fact finding’ committee of BCB administrators Jalal Yunus and Enayet Hossain was shaped with the aim to evaluation the staff’s dismal outing on the planet occasion.
Less than a yr later coach Russell Domingo and captain Mahmudullah, who had expressed considerations over the criticism of gamers from the board, have discovered themselves stripped off of their respective positions within the format.
In a latest interview with Bangla every day, Prothom Alo, Domingo opened up on his snubbing and what he known as the largest problem of Bangladesh cricket.
“I won’t say that I was shocked but as a coach, you have to be ready for everything and if the team is losing you cannot guarantee your future. I know there are a lot of questions about the team and considering that it (my removal from T20s) wasn’t totally unexpected,” he stated.
Domingo opened up on his snubbing and what he known as the largest problem of Bangladesh cricket. (File)
The 48-year-old additional added on how his teaching was an alien expertise for the gamers by way of their therapy.
“If you criticize them harshly you cannot get the best out of them and I didn’t want to do that (criticize) because cricketers need time to learn from their mistakes and take their own decisions,” Hassan stated.
“In the last eight to 10 years, cricketers did not get this kind of coaching and they cannot think anything on their own because the board scolds them and the director of coaching (Khaled Mahmud) scolds them and they were told in every step what they need to do and this is the biggest challenge of Bangladesh cricket because cricketers cannot think anything on their own.”
Weakest within the Asia Cup group?
They might not have performed a single ball of cricket on the match however it isn’t simply off the sector chaos that Bangladesh have been related to. With Afghanistan having began off the Group B motion with a juicy Net Run Rate boosting win, the strain ought to ideally have been on Sri Lanka with the boys in inexperienced and the runner ups from the final two editions nonetheless having two fixtures to play. But captain Dasun Shanaka’s post-match presser highlighted in any other case as he termed Sri Lanka’s subsequent fixture, ‘easier’.
“Afghanistan has a world-class bowling attack,” Shanaka stated submit the eight-wicket defeat in opposition to Afghanistan. We know Fizz (Mustafizur Rahman) is an efficient bowler. Shakib is a world-class bowler. But other than them, there isn’t any world-class bowler within the facet. So if we examine with Afghanistan, Bangladesh is a better opponent.”
Mind video games? Maybe. But that Afghanistan have positioned themselves an equal, maybe barely favourite of each Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is extra of a truth than assumption in 2022. Their prime of the group seating in the intervening time is justified by a greater W/L ratio in T20Is since 2021 (1.714) than each the opposite groups in group (0.619 and 0.476).
Granted, they could face prime rating sides not typically, however how about a greater face to face. Afghanistan have received 5 of the eight conferences in opposition to Bangladesh.
And so, even on their return to a match the place they’ve performed a few of their greatest cricket within the final decade, the percentages in opposition to Bangladesh have by no means been increased. With the burden of chaos on their shoulders and their standing amongst their opponents, an look in one other remaining received’t be superb however effectively anticipated of them.
