‘If I was a coward, I wouldn’t be coming here’

Bangladesh Test skipper Mominul Haque fronted up to the media present at the airport after returning from South Africa today. There is criticism of his captaincy after two heavy defeats in the two-match Test series but he said that he was in the same place he was before the Test win in New Zealand and had enough authority to make his own decisions.

Asked regarding the impact of the two defeats and their impact on him before the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, Mominul said: "This can happen. If I start thinking negatively then I am a coward. If I was a coward then I have to win the Test match first before I can come here. If I was a coward and I had that kind of fear in my mind, I wouldn't be coming to the press conference here. I am still the same as before. The most important thing is that the mistakes I made; I don't want to make the same mistakes in the next series.

"If the mistakes keep recurring then that is something to be worried about," he added.

Who takes Mominul's decisions for him became a talking point after the first Test as news surfaced that a few seniors did not want to bat first at Durban which led to Mominul opting to bowl first. Bangladesh fought well for four days but cracked on day five, slumping to 53 all out on a surface that had more turn on offer than Bangladesh expected.

Mominul said that he still had authority to make his own decisions.

"I took the decision to come here [press conference] on my own. No one told me to come here, not even you guys. I came here on my own. Since I am the captain, I make the decisions. No one forces me. I have authority. Maybe because I bowled first in South Africa and lost, that's why this is an issue. If you look at New Zealand surfaces, they were flatter. Perhaps the second Test was a bit challenging. We won by bowling first in the first Test. The problem was that when pacers were bowling with the new ball, the first ten overs saw us picking up two wickets (one wicket) but that didn't happen in South Africa. Maybe we went to the backfoot for that reason. We played well for four days (in the first Test) but we were terrible in the second innings.