Repainting never works
In a recent interview Richard McInnes opined that Bangladesh stagnated because nothing had changed. The former BCB Academy head coach, who had a long stint with Bangladesh cricket in two phases, in his long conversation with Wisden India did not say anything new while pointing out reasons behind Bangladesh's failure in international cricket.
Our cricket authorities always try to repaint a damaged wall instead of fixing the cracks when problems arise. And under the leadership of Nazmul Hassan Papon, the Bangladesh Cricket Board is doing this far too often, especially in the wake of the disastrous performances this year.
The result is that the problems remain the same, while the exterior gets a new outlook and, if things continue like this, we will be discussing the same problems forever.
As another international series approaches, at home against Zimbabwe, everybody is focused that any positives from the series will bring great relief to the team. The nation will then start pinning their hopes on the national team until another disastrous display against a top side creates a negative atmosphere in the BCB which will allow them to take decisions; and they will, in all probability, take the popular decisions.
Enough was said against the players after the recent defeats and without doubt there have been a lot of problems for the top level players. But until or unless Bangladesh cricket authorities shift their focus from international cricket to the domestic circuit, nothing will change.
A recent trend is that many officials become part of the national or senior sides but nobody knows whether they add any value to the team. Three former national captains Akram Khan, Naimur Rahman and Habibul Bashar were tagged with the national team on their West Indies trip and we hoped the board would receive new ideas from their visit in order to solve the problems that plagued Bangladesh.
The expectation was that the BCB would get rid of the problems with the arrival of a number of former cricketers at the helm of the administration; they would give their utmost effort and knowledgeable input in order to increase the standard of domestic cricket, but one year has passed since their election and they have done nothing new.
Without any resistance, one season of the Premier League could be spoiled, though it is the bread and butter for the majority of cricketers. Funnily enough, the authorities could delay the start of this season's Premier League due to some top players' participation in a tournament marking 150 years of Kolkata's Eden Gardens.
There are people in the BCB who know that until we improve the standard of our domestic cricket, we will continue to stagnate.
Was there a single board meeting dedicated to the problems of domestic cricket? No. We could not make a permanent domestic calendar. There is no pre-season preparation. We have two first-class competitions which are not meaningful at all.
The BPL brings in a lot of off-field problems but nobody will argue that we need a BPL-standard T20 competition in our country. It seems the BCB will simply cut off its head to cure a headache instead of doing something meaningful.
When a board only focuses on their senior team and international cricket, one can only expect what is happening now. Our development programme has probably hit its nadir.
You can blame the players; you can question their commitment; you can make changes as you wish or you can hire the world's top coaching staff for your teams, but nothing will change until the BCB administrators fix their main problem, which is the domestic cricket. It may not be as glamorous as international cricket, but it is the proper foundation to build on.
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