allrounder
December 27, 2004, 02:25 PM
Bangladesh were faced with an unfortunate situation ahead of yesterday's third and final ODI as they were forced to make two last minute changes thus breaking the winning combination that had handed India a 15-run defeat on Sunday.
With pacemen Tapash Baisya and Nazmul Hossain ruled out because of injuries, Mushfiqur Rahman came in for one of them. But the name of the other replacement took everybody by surprise as it defied logic. Veteran paceman Hasibul Hossain, who was not even in the preliminary squad, was picked in the playing XI virtually from nowhere.
Chief selector Faruque Ahmed said that he became aware on Sunday night that Nazmul will not be able to make it because of a groin injury and replaced the young paceman with Mushfiq. However, the second change was apparently made in the morning.
"Dav (Whatmore) requested me in the morning to call up a quick bowler as Tapash was not feeling hundred percent with a stiff shoulder and we thought Hasibul would be the best choice at the moment," said Faruque.
The inclusion of the 27-year-old, who is the leading wicket-taker with 15 in the ongoing Dhaka Premier Division league came in for a lot of criticism from the local media and raised questions about the sincerity of the selectors. Faruque had earlier gone on record as saying that they will not consider any player outside the preliminary squad and will maintain this philosophy before picking a final team. The former Bangladesh captain had also ruled out selecting players based on their performance in the Dhaka league. He however did just the opposite in Hasibul's case which he tried to justify as "crisis management".
"Yes we had options in Talha Jubair and Tareq Aziz who were in the preliminary list but we considered Hasibul's experience and his impressive performance in the Premier Division Cricket League," said Faruque who added that the name of the country's fastest bowler Shahadat Hossain Rajib was also discussed but they thought the stage was not proper for an upcoming pacer like him to make his international debut.
While Hasibul, whose international days appeared long over with the emergence of more exciting and faster youngsters, enjoyed inexplicable favour from the selectors, the same selection committee continued to remain indifferent about the country's top off-spinner Naimur Rahman. Naimur has been in dashing form with both the bat and ball in the Premier Division where he is leading Abahani.
The selectors have repeatedly preached that in order to be considered for international cricket, a player must prove his fitness under the Bangladesh Cricket Board's High Performance Unit or train with the Tigers in a selection camp. But that rule was totally ignored when Hasibul was called up. One wonders why someone as experienced as Naimur should not receive the same privilege especially with the team in desperate need of a genuine off-break bowler.
For the record, Hasibul's bowling was treated with utter disdain by Indian openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag yesterday and the right-arm paceman conceded 53 runs in his spell of six overs. Before yesterday, Hasibul last played an ODI in September 2003 against Pakistan at Faisalabad.
With pacemen Tapash Baisya and Nazmul Hossain ruled out because of injuries, Mushfiqur Rahman came in for one of them. But the name of the other replacement took everybody by surprise as it defied logic. Veteran paceman Hasibul Hossain, who was not even in the preliminary squad, was picked in the playing XI virtually from nowhere.
Chief selector Faruque Ahmed said that he became aware on Sunday night that Nazmul will not be able to make it because of a groin injury and replaced the young paceman with Mushfiq. However, the second change was apparently made in the morning.
"Dav (Whatmore) requested me in the morning to call up a quick bowler as Tapash was not feeling hundred percent with a stiff shoulder and we thought Hasibul would be the best choice at the moment," said Faruque.
The inclusion of the 27-year-old, who is the leading wicket-taker with 15 in the ongoing Dhaka Premier Division league came in for a lot of criticism from the local media and raised questions about the sincerity of the selectors. Faruque had earlier gone on record as saying that they will not consider any player outside the preliminary squad and will maintain this philosophy before picking a final team. The former Bangladesh captain had also ruled out selecting players based on their performance in the Dhaka league. He however did just the opposite in Hasibul's case which he tried to justify as "crisis management".
"Yes we had options in Talha Jubair and Tareq Aziz who were in the preliminary list but we considered Hasibul's experience and his impressive performance in the Premier Division Cricket League," said Faruque who added that the name of the country's fastest bowler Shahadat Hossain Rajib was also discussed but they thought the stage was not proper for an upcoming pacer like him to make his international debut.
While Hasibul, whose international days appeared long over with the emergence of more exciting and faster youngsters, enjoyed inexplicable favour from the selectors, the same selection committee continued to remain indifferent about the country's top off-spinner Naimur Rahman. Naimur has been in dashing form with both the bat and ball in the Premier Division where he is leading Abahani.
The selectors have repeatedly preached that in order to be considered for international cricket, a player must prove his fitness under the Bangladesh Cricket Board's High Performance Unit or train with the Tigers in a selection camp. But that rule was totally ignored when Hasibul was called up. One wonders why someone as experienced as Naimur should not receive the same privilege especially with the team in desperate need of a genuine off-break bowler.
For the record, Hasibul's bowling was treated with utter disdain by Indian openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag yesterday and the right-arm paceman conceded 53 runs in his spell of six overs. Before yesterday, Hasibul last played an ODI in September 2003 against Pakistan at Faisalabad.