What process behind Fazle’s inclusion?’

The quality of cricket in Bangladesh's domestic circuit has long been a point of concern, specifically since it failed to supply sufficient players of adequate quality in the national team's pipeline. Previously, the trend was such that players circled back into the side because others were not performing. Players were neither guaranteed a call up just for domestic performances, nor were the displays in domestic circuit a recipe for international success. Thus, only very few had the quality to leap to international level after performing in domestic cricket, and this in turn created a dearth of quality replacements in the national team pipeline. However, with a few national team stars currently missing out through injuries or otherwise, the team management has resorted to calling up players, who had previously not been trusted to face the rigours of international cricket. Such a case could be the inclusion of Fazle Mahmud for the Test series in New Zealand.

Fazle had last played for Bangladesh in the ODIs at home against Zimbabwe and following ducks in both matches of that series, he was subsequently dropped for the next three years before his inclusion for the New Zealand tour. While performances in domestic competitions should be the measuring stick for breaking into the national side, the lack of quality present in competitions give indications to lack of process behind national side's inclusions too.

On Saturday, the Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan, while talking to the media at the BKSP, deemed the criticisms of the domestic circuit to be baseless. However, that a lack of process had existed and that focus often is solely on national team became apparent.

"Maybe I will continue playing some players for, let's say, a period of two years. But what will happen? We have to see the future and make long-term plans. They [team management] asked for three months' time to experiment so as to make long-term plans. So there was no way to say no," the BCB president said.

It's natural to call upon fringe players but Fazle cannot realistically be classified among 'fringe' players who had been in the national side's periphery.

Fazle's domestic performance then makes a good case for inclusion, having scored 603 runs at an impressive average of over 60 in the recently concluded National Cricket League (NCL). However, if domestic competition was a measuring gauge, then how does Mohammad Naim, who played last domestic long-format competition 18 months ago, scoring a pair and averaging 16.63 in first-class cricket, get into the side? It appears that a dearth of players made selectors pick Naim, because he has been among the international grind, even if not in Tests. On spectrum's other end, Fazle was picked based on domestic performance. Process or far from it?

Tushar Imran, who has been the face of success in domestic cricket, was included haphazardly during a tour of South Africa in 2002, where he struggled to end up negatively affecting his career. NCL performances on poor wickets will also not help Fazle's case in New Zealand and it only remains to be seen whether any positive performance from him would be used as domestic cricket's laudatory song for the next year.