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Originally Posted by Fazal
I think we over simplify when we just consider age as the only factor to say if the player will grow further or not. If age is the only criteria, then yes we can say Ash should continue to grow up to 28/29 years old.

But the reality is different. Why? Because there are factors to consider also that may nullify the age factor. Let’s see what are the other factors”

1. Sometimes when a player start playing too early, their peak point comes earlier than other players who start their career late. There are plenty of examples about that in other sports in the world. There is couple of reasons for that. And one of them is:
Physical and metal exhaustion and wear and tear comes earlier to players who start early. Human body is like a car, it has some mileage that can be used, When you use them , trouble starts

I don't agree with you here, body does not have mileage. Then all the athletes would have died earlier than the 'Nandalals'. It is rather the opposite. Some people might be tiring out mentally because of their sense of fullfilment of desires, complacense due to achievents of all of his visions etc etc. The tiring out is a mental affair.

Originally Posted by Fazal
2. the experience part can play both way. Proper training along with experience can make a good foundation to a young player which can go long way building their career. On the other hand, without proper training along with too much unplanned exposure at early can create and solidify bad traits which can be hard to change at later stage of a young player even he is still young.

Concept is right, but it is always related with age, in the same system. If the older player is a product of the same system, the younger player has always a better chance of improvement against the older

Originally Posted by Fazal
3. If a player is young he can fix and enhance his physical skills. But if a player's problem is not physical but only mental then only experience can help him. But if he is already experienced (at early age) and have shown little sign to learn from his mistakes, then young age factor may not work for his favor. To explain further:

I agree with this; but we must see if that applies to Ash. He has a way of playing, wheather it is right or wrong, he had been successfully doing it. There are many greats who played shots perceved to be wrong way repeatedly, but they were successful and became greats. teldulkar & Joysuriya are examples, even if jS was failing repeatedly, still Srilanka despite having more options than us to replace him, are persisting with him, because of his experience & class. They say form is temporay and class is permanent. Ash did not perform well in last tournament, if we conclude that he is finished, that will be assumption. He was dropped once before and came back with huge performances, without changing the way of his game. You are thinking that he tried to change his game and failed, where as the fact is, he has never tried to change his game rathar he was trying to perfect the same game through practice, so for him, it is not a matter of failure to learn. Gavasker cannot become viv richads or vice versa, that's not learning. Tendulker is expected to learn to be more of Tendulkerer and Ganguly to become more Ganguly through perfecting their game, similarly, while we say learing for Ash, it should mean learning/perfecting his game to be more of Ashraful.

Originally Posted by Fazal
Player A: Age 23. Excellent (top class) physical talent. Have questionable mental maturity. Started at age 15, already played 100+ international games for 8 years. Showed little sign so far to learn and grow. However shown glimpses of high class performance when everything worked for him. But shown repeated mental lapse again and again.

Player B: Age 26. Have good physical talent. Good maturity for his age. Started at age 24 and played only 12+ international games for 1.5+ years. Showed sign that he is learning but fails mainly due to lack of experience and lack of exposure to the highest competition.

The comparison between the two players are unfair. because, player 'A' who has played for 8 years and showing signs of poor form Vs player 'B' who only performed for 1.5 years and showing signs of poor form, Player 'A" is a proven match winner Vs. Player 'B' is assumed to be, Player 'A' has the age & Exp advantage Vs Player 'B' etc etc. If player 'A' Has to be removed, one needs to be sure that he is on pemanent decline. Anything less than a year for player 'A' is 'off form' not a permanent decline of his ability to perform. While if Player 'B' is not performing big in 1.5 years; his problem is not form. He simply doesn't belong to the class and be dumped without wasting time.

Originally Posted by Fazal
To me, even player A is still very young, we may already seen his peak. I would say even player B is 3 years older, we haven't seen his peak yet.

See how illogical it is, you have seen high performance of player 'A' means, he has proven his class and ability. High performance does not speak of the expiry of a player after that, it should be the low performance over a reasonable period of time to conclude that he has crossed his peack and write him off. How can someone say that he has crossed his peak at the age of 23 and still continuing to play? The player 'B' could just be a rotten mango in the basket whom we expect to reach peak (Assumed Standard), but may not be worth it, that's assumption and gambling.

Originally Posted by Fazal
Therefore people who thinks and hopes and prays and argues that Ash is still young and therefore his peak performance is yet to come, and then get disappointed and then again hope and pay and argue again he will grow just because he is still relatively young, I would ask them to rethink... because age is not the only factor working here... there are other factors also that dictate if a player can still develop and grow.

Expectation on 'A' is still based on facts, but the expectation on 'B' is mere assumption. many players have performed bad for one year or more and then did even better than what he did before

Originally Posted by Fazal
Of course there is exception, and if that what you guys (Ash fans) are all expecting, that’s fine... but don't tell us just because he is still young, therefore he will grow further as a player.

I am a fan of Ash, but I am first the fan of my team. If we have a better player who has/can perform better than Ash, lets replace him today. We have seen that; we called in our best young peformers but they could hardly show some promise, except 1 with mediocre performance so far.

We all know, Ash is not performing as we would expect, he needs to do good, we all agree, but it's not usefull to throw away his experience and proven abilities for someone much bellow his standad, just because the incumbent is young. that's when Ash's fans say, Ash is also young, if that is the only justification for the newcomer.