BCB cannot just sit on WC debacle

Bangladesh cricket team returned home yesterday after a disastrous World Cup campaign in India where they were eliminated from the group stage with seven defeats against only two wins. 

Fans and cricket experts have termed the performance as one of the worst since Bangladesh's maiden appearance in the showpiece event way back in 1999. The listless performance of the Tigers in this World Cup, which included a chastening defeat against ICC's associate nation the Netherlands, was something nobody was expecting, especially after the team had finished third in the ODI Super League.

The burning question doing the rounds now is how a well-drilled one-day machine collapsed on all fours with the batting in shambles, the bowling lacking bite and the confidence in the dressing room very low. 

However, pointing fingers at the players and the team management for the failure will only be a futile exercise to hide the bigger picture where everyone including the board president has to take responsibility for the debacle. 

We don't know whether the disaster was in the making since Tamim Iqbal's emotional retirement in July and his subsequent return following the intervention of the Prime Minister. A lot of incidents happened after that, including the last-minute drama over the selection of the World Cup squad. 

We don't know whether those off-the-field incidents adversely affected the performance of the team in the World Cup. We also don't know how professionally the board handled those situations. 

What we do know is that this World Cup was not just a debacle, instead it has put our cricket at a crossroads. What we do realise is that it is time to take a decision on whether we are ready for a retrospection instead of finding scapegoats which had been the case so often in the past. 

After the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, where Bangladesh lost all their games including against Canada, the cricket administration formed a two-member fact-finding committee. That committee of Commodore (retd) Mujibur Rahman and Syed Shamim Ahsan, who were not associated with the board, submitted a report after talking to all the stakeholders. 

That report is still considered to be a true fact-finding document that eventually helped Bangladesh cricket to rise from the ashes. 

However, the question is whether the current BCB leadership is bold enough to find out what went wrong and who were responsible for the debacle or choose to sweep the dirt under the carpet.

It's about time the BCB leadership broke silence.