Selectors without their own tune
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief selector Minhajul Abedin's comment on Sunday that 'we want him [Mashrafe Bin Mortaza] to return to the T20 fold' was indeed a curious one. His stated desire raised the same old question about whether the Minhajul-led selection panel can sing their own tune.
Contrary to their latest melody, this selection panel's tune struck the same chords as those of former national coach Chandika Hathurusingha and BCB president Nazmul Hassan when they advocated for the injection of young blood into the T20 team.
As recently as after the T20 home series against Sri Lanka in February when the selectors tried a number of new players, Minhajul opined: "As T20s are the best platform to try new players in the side we did have a look at some young players who have performed well in the domestic circuit recently. However, it is difficult to comment only by their performances in two games."
Once the BCB boss revealed after that series that he had asked Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe to make a comeback in the T20 series against Sri Lanka and tried to bring back the inspirational cricketer for the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka in March, the selectors' tune seems to have changed once again and Sunday's comment was just a reflection of that ahead of the Tigers' next T20I series against Afghanistan in June.
Why is Minhajul pining after a cricketer who time and again has said that he has no interest in a T20I comeback and that he only wants to focus on ODI cricket? Mashrafe is undoubtedly in good form and is a leading pacer in the country but still there is no logic to put pressure on someone who is not interested to reverse his T20I retirement, a decision taken in April 2017. The more vital question is whether this mindset reveals a passive and thoughtless approach on the part of the selectors, who are content to live in a comfort zone rather than conceive of and implement any new policy to unearth new talent.
It can also be surmised that, unless Mashrafe expresses a desire to come back, it is a backwards approach especially as Bangladesh played good cricket in the shortest format of the game in their last series (the Nidahas Trophy) without the services of the inspirational cricketer.
It is believed that Mashrafe was not fully convinced when he decided to quit this format, but took the decision following Hathurusinga's constant murmurs about introducing fresh blood in the T20 format. However, the selection panel had not talked in favour of Mashrafe then.
Although this selection panel try to say that they have the freedom to make their own decisions, their actions hardly reflect that and they have already gotten the tag of a 'puppet' selection panel.
As often happens, a good series or a few good performances sweep all the problems in the board's governance under the carpet. Criticism surrounding board policy, including the toothless state of the selection panel, abounded before the Nidahas Trophy and disappeared after the Tigers' run to the final. But if the good times are to continue, focus on systemic problems cannot depend on results and the ineffectual selection committee is one of the chief issues in Bangladesh cricket -- Minhajul's comment was just the latest illustration of it.