Azad Majumder . Nottingham
Bangla-desh coach Jamie Siddons is not among the best fans of Mohammad Ashraful's captaincy and he made it quite clear on a number of occasions. The latest criticism came on Wednesday when Siddons questioned his field placing in a warm-up match and his tendency to take the ball.
Talking to Bangladeshi reporters at Hotel Park Plaza in Nottingham, Siddons said he was unhappy to see Ashraful to take the ball against Sri Lanka a day earlier, when there were other bowlers to use.
'I am not happy with Ash (Ashraful) bowling. I keep trying to tell him not to bowl but he likes bowling. We have got to have a debate on that this week. We have got better bowlers than him in our side. So he doesn't need to bowl,' said Siddons.
Ashraful came ahead of regular bowlers Sakib al Hasan and Abdur Razzak as second change against Sri Lanka and bowled medium pace instead of his usual leg-spin to concede nine runs in his only over.
'He loves bowling. I think he might have had some success in a match of the last Twenty World Cup. So, he thinks he can do it every time,' said Siddons apparently referring to a game against Pakistan in a four-nation tournament in Kenya when Ashraful had his best Twenty20 bowling figure of 3-42.
Ashraful frequently used himself as a bowler in the following event, the inaugural Twenty20 Cup, but had little success. He conceded 55 runs against West Indies, a match that Bangladesh won but only riding on his bat. In Bangladesh's last three Twenty20 overs, Ashraful, however, did not bowl.
Siddons was also critical of his field placing especially in the dying moments of the match against Sri Lanka. Rubel Hossian bowled the last over with Sri Lanka needing just seven runs. But Siddons believed it would have been difficult for Sri Lanka to score those runs with Ashraful being slightly careful of his field placing.
'Rubel bowled a yorker outside the off-stump and we did not have a deep cover,' Siddons said referring to the third ball of the over that effectively sealed the fate of the game when Angelo Mathews struck a boundary through the extra cover.
'We didn't really have a set plan for the bowlers to bowl. They are bowling, slow ball, yorker, bouncer in one over to the same field. We need to have a better plan,' said Siddons adding that he has already talked to Ashraful about it.
'I spoke to him yesterday (Tuesday). He was under pressure too. Maybe Rubel was not supposed to bowl that ball. I am not sure. It's not a big deal but we have to make sure in the next match that it doesn't happen in the last over,' said the Australian.
Siddons said he and the leadership group of the team need to talk more to solve the problem. The team management had formed a leadership group in January to help Ashraful make better decisions. The members of the group are: Ashraful, his deputy Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Sakib al Hasan, Roqibul Hassan and Mushfiqur Rahim.
'They (the members of the leadership group) had a conversation before the third last over that Mash (Mashrafee) bowled. But it did not work as well as we hoped. But I think they are discussing things. I think the bowling coach, the captain, the bowlers and myself need to do a bit of more planning,' said Siddons.
Newagebd