Negatively positive

WELL, THEY WERE COMPETITIVE: National players Shakib Al Hasan (R), Tamim Iqbal (C) and Mahmudullah Riyad wait after they arrived at the Zia International Airport in Dhaka yesterday.Photo: STAR

Last month Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) gladly accepted an offer from its Pakistani counterpart to fill up the gap left by world champions Australia's postponement of their scheduled series over security fears.
But now surely none of the officials can dare look back on the happenings of the tour. The reason simply is that the superfluous cricket only brought unnecessary pain for the country's cricket lovers.
The series may have had a positive impact on the players' pockets, but Bangladesh's cricket was the ultimate loser as the critics were presented with another opportunity to make their voices louder against the Tigers.
Optimists, mostly within the national setup, would point to Shakib Al Hasan's hundred, the Tigers reaching 285 while chasing 309 and scoring 200 thrice in the series as the upshot.
But as the mantra goes, cricket is a team sport and as a team Mohammad Ashraful's men have hardly shown any improvement from their last trip to Pakistan five years back, rather it has added insult to injury following their recent wretched run against the world's top- ranked sides.
If their performance in the five-match one-day series was pathetic then their effort in the lone Twenty20 international was beyond anybody's expectation.
There is no debate that the main problem behind Bangladesh team's poor showing is their senseless batting but in the just-concluded series bowling and fielding seemed to have caught the batsmen's fever.
Fielding is one area where any team can be consistent if they have the drive to get it better. For a team like Bangladesh, this department is much more important than any other top side.
Like a specialist bowling coach the team has a dedicated fielding coach in Mohammad Salahuddin, who has the reputation of a hardworking individual, but the question is that what we actually got from his efforts. The answer, simply, is: nothing. The standard of fielding has been going down day by day.
The authority should find the answers where the problems actually lie. But apparently it appears that the 'friendly' attitude of the mentors towards their charges simply backfired on the team.
The players started to feel the comfort once Shaun Williams, the national game development manager, was given the job of the national team in the tour of Sri Lanka in June-July last year after the departure of Dav Whatmore. And his presence only helped the boys to find 'positives' even from the worst possible performance and this kind of attitude has continued even under Jamie Siddons.
Being positive is a good approach but it doesn't necessarily mean that you try to find positives in everything, especially from the performance in Pakistan last week.
It only helps you do even worse in the next assignment.
What many believe is that Bangladesh cricket team has been missing a hard task-master like Whatmore because no one is now worried after he gives away his wicket or fumbles in the field.
There might be a debate on the role of a coach in cricket but for Bangladesh, it is as important as having a captain out in the middle.
Just one example can be good enough to understand the importance of a coach. During Whatmore's reign, the national players once believed that they have the ability to turn the table on any team on their day. But now they have started to believe that these recent performances are what they actually are capable of.
So time has come for the authority to reassess everything before things get out of control. Our goal, the 2011 World Cup, is not too far away.