I dont have an issue with a lot of what is in the article.
But I do have an issue with the headline.
See issues with 'Is it time to retire the captain' and 'What sort of coach should we get' arent about changes in vision.
For example, Australian cricket had to retire Alan Border - the sole good player in a crap side - before he thought he should go, and then the Mark Taylor era saw the team playing for wins rather than draws.
I'd suggest as well the soccer idea of a "technical director" - splitting the skills coaching from the man management (and in any case, I'd argue the flaws in Bangladesh's batting are not fundamentally technical - they are mental, based on knowing what not to hit, rather than one how to move, play certain shots or whatever).
I'd also argue with your mandate for more aggression - if anything, the Bangladesh side needs a faster, stronger, better JO type or two to balance the raw aggression of the younger players. Unfortunately, I have no idea of who can construct the slow and patient hundreds that I think the team needs to make dominating scores, and sometimes you need to make a team out of the talent you have (cf the lack of good Australian offspinners over the last ummm forever).
Finally, acclimitising players to different conditions is best done by touring them, not by trying to change the types of wickets Bangladesh produces.
Me, I'm impressed with the job BCB have done with *all* the back office stuff. If you compare BCB with the mess that is Pakistan or the West Indies, or the byzantine politics of BCCI, then they really have done a good job.
Most of all, I think that the Bangladesh team is not at a crossroads - but it has come into the hills on a winding road. It gets hard, bowling on flat tracks to good batsmen and needing to manufacture wickets. It gets hard, chasing 600 after being in the field for two and a half days. It gets hard, getting up after getting belted and playing the next game to win.
But it is these hard things that will have to be done to turn this young and talented side into world beaters. Certainly, some will stumble, fall and be lost. Certainly, missed chances will be rued. But I will judge this side, not by what it did last week or last month, or by what it will do next week or next month, but by what it does in four years.
2011. Thats when I'm counting the marbles.
Ian Whitchurch
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