[cricman]

All Credit goes to Raheel who posted it on the Meditation thread

Very good read, Ash sounded really smart Some really interesting notes and hen is siddons going to take the course? SN should visualize every teams as Zimbabwe or Australia

(Mohammed Ashraful, captain of the Bangladesh national cricket team completed the Quantum Method Meditation Course in the 272nd batch. He spoke about his feelings in Alokaion this Tuesday, June 18. Here is a translated and shortened version of what he said for all you cricket lovers out there.)

I was supposed to do this course a long time ago. After I was selected for the Bangladesh cricket team my cousin advised me to do this course. Later after my brother Mostaq Ahmed Shipon did the course in the 267 batch he told me to do the course also. My performance had not been that good recently. He said he believed this course would help me become a better player.

I asked him to tell me about the things that were discussed in this course. He said ‘if you set a goal and believe you will be able to break all the records you want.’ I laughed. I had heard all this ‘positive thinking’ stuff before.

But finally I agreed to do the course in spite of having to miss four days of training. I liked everything Gurujee said in these forty hours. He did not say a single negative thing in the four days.

I think this is what we need most, because we Bengalis say too many negative things. For example I was made the captain because of my good performance in domestic cricket. But after my form fell people started saying that I shouldn’t have been made the captain because I was too young. I began having doubts myself. I was considering leaving the captaincy. I thought my supporters might love me like they used to if I quit.

Then a friend said I should look at my captaincy as a big opportunity and enjoy it instead of putting so much pressure on myself. I realized all these negative thoughts were doing me no good. Instead of thinking about how to play better I was wasting my time by thinking useless things. So I again started thinking that I can. I told myself I have performed well for Bangladesh in the past. After that, I did better, although my normal game has not come back yet.

I think with the meditation/visualization techniques I learnt in the course I will play better. In 2003, when the Indian team came to Bangladesh, I had a talk with Sachin Tendulker. He told me that the night before a match I should close my eyes and visualize for two minutes how I wanted to play the next day. I took his advice and scored 158 not out the next day. I broke the record of 145 of Aminul Islam Bulbul bhai.

But unfortunately we often do not continue things. If I had continued I might have played better. But now that I have learnt so many techniques I will try to continue and keep in touch with the foundation.

The thing I liked best was monchobi or mental image meditation; because I think we Bengalis have very small dreams. The Bangladeshi cricketers do not dream of becoming top ranked world cricketers, all we want is to play a little better in a match. Although all of us say we want to, in reality we think we won’t be able to compete with others.

For example, before we won against Australia, I had played very badly in the test match. In the one day match against England I got out in the first ball. During the match against Australia, I was very tense. I knew I won’t be allowed to play in the next matches if I performed badly in that match. The selector and captain gave me a lot of support, but I kept thinking ‘I will make 0, 1, or 2 today and carry water the next four days.’

Then Shahriar Nafis told me ‘Why don’t you think of this match as your first match?’ I said ok and decided to try to stay at the wicket as long as I could. After 20 to 30 overs Bangladesh was about to win the match and I was going make a century.

My whole life changed in three hours. Three hours ago I was a burden to the team, three hours later, I was a hero. Everyone, including the Australian players was patting me on my back, congratulating me.

This happened because I believed. I had changed my trend of my thought. I decided to concentrate on what was within my control instead of what wasn’t.

I think everyone should take part in this course. I will help them to create a new life for themselves.

I will try to do many things in the future. Please pray for the Bangladesh team. Inshallah we will play well in the future. I know Quantum has the dream of making Bangladesh one of the ten greatest nations on earth. I am happy that we are already one of the top ten nations in cricket. I think that with hard work, belief and your prayers the Bangladesh cricket team will one day be the best in the world.

http://www.quanfey.org/content/pages/focus2.html