View Single Post
  #20  
Old November 15, 2012, 10:13 AM
jeesh jeesh is offline
Cricket Legend
 
Join Date: January 4, 2005
Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Posts: 4,093

Your points remind me of a debate i had with a Sri Lankan friend of mine in 2007 during the WC. I told him at the rate we are producing talent we will overtake Sri lanka in no time. I told him once the likes of Sanga, Mahela, Murali, Vaas retire they wont be able to compete. He laughed off my claims, saying they might not have Bangladesh's talent, but they will always produce world class performers. In fact what he said is true. Sri Lanka replaced De Silva, Ranatunga, Jayasuriya with Sanga, Mahela, Dilshan. And now Chandimal, Mathews, and Munaweera will probably take over. They might have not found a Murali but have two very capable bowlers in Mendis and Dhananajaya. Lets not forget guys like Senanayake, Randiv, Herath all of whom will command a spot in our side.

We ve always been better than Sri Lanka in age group cricket. From Naimur Rahmans time we have been beating them. Problem is our guys dont develop from there. In contrast their players mature, develop better and become international standard. Players with less talent and skill become better performers than our guys. Chandimal for instance is by no means more talented than Anamul or Mominul. But somehow you will see he will surge ahead. How? Its not like they have significantly better first class structure than us. But i guess the coaching, the management of the players, the wickets, the school system, the education all of these make Sri Lankans better cricketers. I bet the likes of Ashraful, Kapali, Enamul would have been completely different players had they played in Sri Lanka all their lives. Not just the players, even the administrators. Just check the size of BCB, the experience of the administrators and compare with that of Sri Lanka. You will know why they develop and why we dont. Why they can attract coaches like Moody, Ford, Bayliss (Not that they pay more salaries than us).

And its not just in cricket. If you are familiar with the Bangladeshi apparel industry you will see top apparel companies love to recruit Sri Lankan management. Not because Sri Lankans have more degree or are more educated or are more experienced. They can just get the job done better than Bangladeshi managers.

I do hope Bangladesh overtake Sri Lanka one day-but theres a long long way to go. 5 years since my debate with my friend i d say we havent gone too far from then. We have a lot to learn. Question is do we have the will and intelligence to do so
Reply With Quote