Originally Posted by
Murad
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided to reactivate the high performance (HP) unit and appoint a foreign coach to run the show again in an effort to bolster development of the players and also of those in the pipeline.
The decision came after BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal and other board high-ups had a meeting with the national team management yesterday at its Mirpur headquarters after the Tigers' 4-1 series victory over Zimbabwe.
Previously, this programme, especially under the guidance of Australian coach Richard McInnes, produced players like current national team captain Shakib Al Hasan and his deputy Mushfiqur Rahim and the programme got special attention when the teen-heavy national side stunned India in the 2007 World Cup in West Indies.
But suddenly the game's governing body discontinued the programme, citing that it had been incorporated in the National Cricket Academy (NCA), a claim that raised many eyebrows.
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It was our main demand [to reactive the HP unit] when the officials welcomed the suggestions from the national team management during the meeting. Look at the current squad, almost all of the players came from this programme. The tough training at the unit helped us a lot to cope with the intensity of international cricket," said Shakib, who also attended the meeting.
"But we must ensure one thing that it is run in a proper way like we had earlier and not in a way the NCA is running from where we hardly got anything in the last two and a half years," he added.
The HP project was initiated by former BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury with a goal to produce international standard players. The subsequent BNP-led government also took further steps to strengthen the project and reaped the benefits. But the departure of McInnes in 2005 brought a grinding halt to this programme, without anyone's notice.
"It was unanimously decided that the programme would be reactivated very soon.
We will try to bring a coach from Australia for the HP programme within a very short time. Actually everybody could understand how important the programme was for us," said BCB's media committee chairman Jalal Yunus, who was also present in the meeting.
He also informed that the national team representatives requested the BCB president to consider reactivating the HP unit, which had been the backbone of international selections like the A Team, Under-19 and Age Groups etc., under the BCB with highly-skilled foreign and local coaches imparting comprehensive cricket and life-related training to the up and coming talent
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I say, its a good decision to reactivate the program. We are getting nothing from the Cricket Academy. I hope they hire a good coach like Mckiness for the program.
Source: DS >>