‘Cricket in Bangladesh shouldn’t be Dhaka-centric’

Former Pakistan captain and popular commentator Ramiz Raja is currently in Dhaka, involved in his maiden commentary stint for the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). In an interview with Mazhar Uddin of The Daily Star, the 61-year-old, who was instrumental in the revival of Pakistan Super League (PSL) as the then Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief, shared his views on the state of BPL and Bangladesh cricket and how things can improve here, and more. The excerpts of the interview are as follows:

The Daily Star (DS): When was the last time you came here in Bangladesh? How's the experience been so far?

Ramiz Raja (RR): I think it must have been four or five years back during a World Cup. My experience has been very nice as I have been welcomed nicely. This time it's different as I am doing [commentary for] the BPL. I always wanted to be here because of the fans and cricket has been special at times.

DS: Your take on BPL's standard?

RR: You see, the pitches have been very good. Even though there are high-scoring games at times, a mid-range total is, at times, more exciting to watch. The talent has been pretty decent but there's always room for improvement.

While PSL is considered to be a bowlers' league since the local bowlers have been pretty good. In BPL so far it's more like a left-armer's or a spinner's league. I think, from a batters' perspective you need to find players with better temperament; especially the young players, because they looked good for a 20 or a 30 and then they throw their wicket away. So, it's important for them to understand the value of a start and make it count.

But when you see Towhid Hridoy, Tanzid Hasan and then you have Tamim, Shakib, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah, all these guys have been around for a long time. So, it's an excellent opportunity for the youngsters to learn in the dugout. The whole idea is to have a bridge between the international players and local cricketers, so BPL is a great source from that point of view.

DS: You were instrumental behind the revival of PSL when you were the PCB chairman. How do you think BPL can be improved?

RR: You got to continue with the effort and make it comfortable for the franchise owners also. In PSL, what we did, there's a fee for every franchise owner to pay to PCB and then everything else regarding the marketing is shared by the franchise owner. It sort of makes sense to them from a business point of view, so you need to encourage that from a business point of view. You get the best investors and I am not sure from a marketing perspective how much interest this league [BPL] holds for sponsorship companies.

I think this is one area where PSL prospered as there's a lot of interest among the sponsors within the multinational companies to invest in PSL, so they hold back the budget and wait for PSL to happen so we get a great deal and value. Look, the standard here will improve but you got to have a system to encourage the youngsters and it takes time. Whatever is happening here is also the reflection of your domestic cricket, and so as long as you follow a certain process here, I am sure you will get good talents.

DS: There had been plenty of talk surrounding the absence of a revenue-sharing model in BPL. Could you sum up the business model of PSL?

RR: At least 95 percent of what the board makes from the PSL goes to PSL franchise owners. The franchisees pay us [PCB] a sizable fee for whatever the marketing they do for the teams… and whatever marketing the PCB does, 95 percent goes to the franchise owners. So, the idea is for them to at least break even every season.

DS: How do you assess Bangladesh cricket's progress?

RR: I think this T20 format is instinctive to the Asian block and you feel this format is tailor made for us. But I think Bangladesh have not really produced results on the international level. They have been awesome at home but the whole idea is to prepare for the away battles because that is where you earn respect. It's tough but at least they are holding their own in Bangladesh which is good. I think one area Bangladesh can become competitive is by improving the pitches and there's a lot of talent in fast bowling also. So you got to encourage the talents with good conditions.

DS: What aspect did you prioritise the most to improve the domestic circuit while you were the PCB chairman?

RR: I built my chairmanship in three pillars: which are marketing excellence, administrative excellence and cricketing excellence. To achieve cricketing excellence, it was important to look at what is happening at the age-level cricket. Therefore, we started the Pakistan junior league to make it commercially viable to make them feel that cricket can be a breadwinner at an early stage and build it as a career in the game. It was an under-19 league and these guys were paid between 11 to 17 thousand dollars for ten or 15 days of cricket as we had legends like Viv Richards, Javed Miandad; all these guys were there. And it worked because the idea was to have a good under-19 as the pool of players will increase by that. The tournament wasn't followed through by the next regime, which was sad. The pitches were horrible at domestic circuits as there were a lot of matches being played in certain grounds. So we had Australian soil come through and now I think we have about four stadiums where we have at least one or two Australian pitches. 

I had a couple of [English] county coaches to coach our first class teams, so we needed the view of an independent man to let us know what needs to be done. It means to provide players a different perspective of the game and it worked well. 

Engro, which is a multinational company in Pakistan, invested in us by putting in a lot of money to train hundred kids in Pakistan. We looked after their equipment free of cost, so we wanted to create well-rounded players. It was a three-year term. 

We revived the school cricket. About 5000 schools are going to play one school system because we felt that's our future. Talking about Pakistan, I think we are good in white-ball cricket compared to Test cricket. In Test cricket we need to improve a lot more, and unless we have pitches in control we won't be able to move forward. I think this is one area where we have struggled off late.

DS: Cricket in Bangladesh is mostly Dhaka-centric. What's the situation in Pakistan?

RR: No, it's not like that in Pakistan. We have provincial and regional tournaments and cricket is spread all around. For Bangladesh it shouldn't be Dhaka-centric. In Sri Lanka it used to be Colombo-centric but they are trying to get away from that. In Pakistan you find talent from back and beyond from a place like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. About 10-15 years ago you could hardly find a cricketer there but now 90 percent of the Pakistan side are from that region, and that could not have happened if it was Lahore or Karachi-centred. So you need to focus on spreading cricket throughout the country.

DS: As the PCB chief, did you try to rebuild relations with India?

RR: That's a government-level decision. But, you know, we speak the same language and culture is also similar and I always felt through cricket we can do a lot of things. Because it's a political issue one can do that much.