Selectors in tour party or not?
Whether a national selector will be sent along with the Tigers to Zimbabwe will be decided on Friday, a practice often carried out by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
The board usually limits the number of travelling members during the tours of the national team to eight. Alongside new coaches Stuart Law and Jason Swift (fielding), assistant-cum-bowling coach Sarwar Imran, will also be part of the support staff during the 26-day tour.
Apart from these three, trainer Grant Luden, computer analyst Nasir Ahmed, manager Tanjeeb Ahsan Saad and new physio Vaibhav Singh will make up the rest of the support staff. An additional member, in the name of the observer, is sometimes sent as the head of the delegation, usually undertaken by a BCB director.
Selectors have often travelled together with the Tigers, carrying the added benefit of an extra set of eyes that could be missed by the captain and coach. Apart from this, the selector often works as an advisor to the coach and in this current situation, someone from Akram Khan's group can be very helpful to Law, someone who would need that level of guidance in Zimbabwe.
But due to the board's limit, the selection panel could be left behind.
This has already become a contentious decision as the current selection panel are said to be less than happy with the arrangement. It was also learned that they have sent a letter to CEO Manzur Ahmed.
When asked whether they would travel to Zimbabwe or not, BCB's media chairman Jalal Yunus informed that the meeting would take a call on the matter. "The decision will be taken in the next board meeting (on July 15 in Sylhet)," he said.
"Normally a selector isn't part of the support staff but they have travelled in the past, though separate from the team," said Jalal.
There is also a downside of a selector staying too close to the team. Players often feel that their natural behaviour could be stunted due to the presence of a senior ex-player, though it is also believed that a selector can check into players' overall countenance as well as potential cliques and other matters.
If the board decide against sending the selector, it would be assumed that the observer, a non-cricketing member, is being sent in his place. In an already fractured organisation, this would once again create a debate which would heavily favour the cricketing decision.
The national cricketers leave on July 27 to play a practice match, a solitary Test and five one-day internationals.
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