Nabid Yeasin

While batting as a whole has been a big concern for Bangladesh in white-ball cricket recently, it is the opening conundrum that has bugged the Tigers most in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

It was an easy presumption to put Bangladesh’s bowling as their main weapon ahead of the T20 World Cup, especially since the batters have provided very little to be excited about in recent times.

As it so often happens in major ICC events, Pakistan have very little in their hands regarding the prospect of advancing in the ongoing T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies. And, as always, it is mostly a making of their own.

We are on to the fifth day of the ongoing T20 World Cup and it still does not seem like the ninth edition of the mega event, being held in the USA and the West Indies, is being able to hook cricket lovers.

“When you don’t kill Real Madrid, Real Madrid kill you,” Xavi Hernandez, who had to come up against Real Madrid a number of times in his career both as a Barcelona player and manager, had said just last year.

Come June 1, when Real Madrid players line up for the UEFA Champions League’s grand finale at the iconic Wembley Stadium, they will not only be up against the yellow army of Borussia Dortmund but against the entire footballing world -- and there are ample reasons for that.

A peek at the recent form of most of the cricket-playing nations might just be enough to give you an idea as to how they could fare at a particular event.

Journos who cover Bangladesh men’s cricket team matches have a pretty good idea as to what the Tigers may say following any particular game.

Could the Tigers spiral down further? The omens would suggest a very bleak answer for fans of a cricket-crazy nation.

Two years back, when Real Madrid had defied the odds almost in each of the knockout rounds to be in Paris for the Champions League final against Liverpool, Joselu was just another face amid the thousands cheering for Los Blancos and watching them win the most elite European competition for a record 14th time. 

“I am Jose Mourinho and I don’t change. I arrive with all my qualities and my defects,” Mourinho said it back in 2010 when he was announced as the manager of Real Madrid.

The combined uncertainty and the thrill of not knowing the outcome beforehand is what usually pulls and hooks spectators to a sporting event. But as far as the outcome is concerned, the ongoing 10th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is anything but irregular.

Durdanto Dhaka pacer Shoriful Islam's maiden T20 hattrick, teams comfortably posting and chasing totals over 150, and the crowd coming in numbers at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur -- the opening day of the 10th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) had events aplenty to hook the cricket lovers.

“At the beginning of the series, we spoke about what we have done before and that we want to do better than that. So, in that sense, I think this is a very successful tour,” Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha reflected on how it went for the Tigers in their final series of 2023.

If Bangladesh are not to not find sombre answers to this then they might need to act on what Pothas said, especially on the part where he mentioned "leaving the team alone" in order to let the players keep on "just playing".

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An act of publicly taking the blame and responsibility, an initiation or indication of setting in motion an overhaul, or a statement of how things are to be taken from here on -- none of the aforementioned measures or steps were taken by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) even as over a fortnight passed since Bangladesh closed their disastrous World Cup campaign.

It was an anticlimactic finish to the 2023 World Cup for arguably the largest cricketing fanbase -- India fans -- as they saw the best team on paper tumbling at the final hurdle only for Australia to clinch their sixth title last week.

It was inevitable. More than it being a question of if, it was rather a debate over how and when.

From aspirations of making it to their maiden semifinal to barely qualifying for the 2025 Champions Trophy with an eighth-placed finish, Bangladesh’s World Cup dream has fluctuated as wildly as its tumultuous state of affairs.