Coach positive too

[Nadim]

Source: Daily Star

Bangladesh cricket coach Jamie Siddons displayed a similar sort of satisfaction like his ex-captain Mohammad Ashraful on the Tigers' recent performance in the ICC World Twenty20 after he faced the local media for the first time yesterday since returning from Australia at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

After Bangladesh made their exit from the tournament, Siddons flew home from England on personal grounds and was scheduled to join the team directly in the West Indies. But, due to the early completion of his commitments back home he was available in town to present his views.

"We played some very good cricket in England. We scored more than 200 against Netherlands and defeated them and the same Netherlands team beat England in the first match. It's just the match against Ireland, which has overshadowed every positive from the tournament, and it's important to remember that it was a Twenty20 game. In a Twenty20 game the lesser teams have a great opportunity to come closer to the bigger teams and Ireland have some very good players who are playing county and Twenty20 all the time," said a not-so-disappointed Siddons.

He expounded on all the different fine tunings that the team had had and did not hesitate to call them improvements.

"There have been improvements in the side. Tamim [Iqbal] hitting boundaries without going down the wicket, Zunaed [Siddiqui] playing hook shots which I didn't see him play before, Shakib [Al Hasan] playing pull shots with a better back lift, Ashraful playing the cut shot which he didn't do before and Rubel [Hossain] bowling slow balls which are tricking batters. So these are the little things where have gone better and will help us in the future."

The Tigers' poor international schedule for the first-half of 2009 was responsible for their disappointing show at the World Twenty20, according to coach Siddons. He however quickly termed the performance in England as disappointing soon after giving an account of all the "good cricket" that was played there.

"We did not play any international matches prior to the World Twenty20 and that's what went wrong in England. We had such less international match practice after the Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe series, which now feels like it's been ages. The ICC Future Tours Programme might give us less matches in the future but there will not be such yawning gaps in between tournaments. I believe the situation's not going to work against us."

But Siddons was honest and forthright about the problems of captaining and coaching a side like Bangladesh which supposedly has all the talent to be giant killers but got killed themselves to minnows Ireland.

"Bangladesh is a tough side to captain and coach as well. The captain does not have a [Shahid] Afridi to throw the ball to, doesn't have a [Sanath] Jayasuriya to go open the batting for him. No [Lasith] Malinga to bowl the last four overs. But we want to do well with whatever resources we have and I think this tour of West Indies is the time for it."

It was during Siddons's absence that the captaincy of Bangladesh team went into the hands of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza from his predecessor Mohammad Ashraful.

"I was the first person to propose to the board that Ashraful needs a break. Let's take the pressure off him. We all know what he is capable of and playing without the added pressure of captaincy will do him good. Mashrafe is a good choice a captain. He is a senior player in the side who has performed well for Bangladesh in the past."

He also said that although the captain is new but the players are still the same, which gives the team a new environment and welcomed the addition of assistant coach Khaled Mahmud.

"It will be nice to have another voice around as many of you remember I lost my assistant coach Sean Williams when I was first appointed, so I look forward to working together with Mahmud whom I will need to get to know better as we have just run into each other during a few practice sessions."

Siddons's next assignment and his captain's first is the tour of West Indies next month. The team departs for the Caribbean tonight and their first stop will be Barbados where they play a practice match before their first Test match on July 9 at St. Vincent. And the Aussie believes that West Indies is an important tour for the Tigers and that the wickets and conditions there will suit us.

"The wickets in the West Indies will suit us. As I have seen in the past few home series of the West Indies the pitches have been flat and have turned from the third day onwards. It will suit our batsmen, medium-pacers and spinners, so there is plenty to look forward to on this tour."

Captain Mashrafe was positive on the eve of the Tigers' departure to the Caribbean saying that he wanted all his players to give their hundred per cent in every match regardless of the outcome.

"The first thing I said after becoming the captain is that we have a problem with our confidence level. It's not that we can't play at the international level, we have played Test matches for five days in the past and beaten international teams. However, there is no use dwelling on the past and I have spoken to the boys to believe in themselves and keep their confidence high throughout the tour. We all are confident at the moment and as the captain I expect my players to hold this confidence together and do well. I know we haven't played well in the World Twenty20 and if we start playing well from the first match we will go into the first Test match with a good momentum. As the captain I want all of them to give their hundred per cent, win or loss comes secondary to it."

The Bangladesh team reach the Caribbean tomorrow for two Test matches and three ODIs along with one-off Twenty20 international.

Sourceaily star

[kalpurush]

Sunshine days ahead...!?

[Zunaid]

Please put the source.

[Sohel]

Sid looks desperate in the photo. Barely concealed volatility framing the smile. Something disturbing about to burst through those eyes. Very Ray Lliotta-like. Sans the hair, of course.

[nycpro96]

really nice read. hope mash does perform as our captain and our strike bowler in the windies.

[MohammedC]

I am pro-siddons, its nice to see him back. I know he went on holiday but this time he had very good reason to go. I have seen player leaving important tours when their wife/gf are due any moment. I was reading in one of the newspaper yesterday or day before, who were criticising Siddons holiday and why he is not around in crictical time. It was wrong. I hope Bangladesh play well in West Indies and JS keeps his job.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
I am pro-siddons, its nice to see him back. I know he went on holiday but this time he had very good reason to go. I have seen player leaving important tours when their wife/gf are due any moment. I was reading in one of the newspaper yesterday or day before, who were criticising Siddons holiday and why he is not around in crictical time. It was wrong. I hope Bangladesh play well in West Indies and JS keeps his job.

yeah, i too think JS should stick around for at least another 2 years, till after the world cup. then we can assess whether we should find someone else or not.

but we've seen a higher increase in individual innings in his tenure for sure, although the averages remain atrocious.

[al Furqaan]

After Bangladesh made their exit from the tournament, Siddons flew home from England on personal grounds and was scheduled to join the team directly in the West Indies. But, due to the early completion of his commitments back home he was available in town to present his views.

haha, i guess in 6 weeks when the WI series is over, he'll be back in the land down under in more ways than one!

[auntu]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
I am pro-siddons, its nice to see him back. I know he went on holiday but this time he had very good reason to go. I have seen player leaving important tours when their wife/gf are due any moment. I was reading in one of the newspaper yesterday or day before, who were criticising Siddons holiday and why he is not around in critical time. It was wrong. I hope Bangladesh play well in West Indies and JS keeps his job.

Count me too...

[abz..+]

thanx for the post nadim bhai

[layperson]

I am anti siddons. Yes my position has changed since Siddons started out. The first time I heard about his appointment I was very excited given his background. A few months into his coaching came out the vacations every now and then. This along with his attitude turned me around. My perspective about Siddons' coaching is much more aligned to the following article in DS titled "Jamie lacks perspective" :

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig....php?nid=94639

[WarWolf]

From the report of the DS...

However, his most worrying comments were directed towards defending his value-addition to the team. As a measure of showcasing his work, Siddons pointed to the fact that Tamim Iqbal's batting was a lot less cavalier, Ashraful was playing a newly acquired cut shot and that Shakib al Hasan's back-lift had improved.
These comments betray Siddons's true standing -- as the head coach of one of a Test playing side. While it may be politically correct to brand this as improvement, the truth of the matter is that it shows a distinctive lack of vision and ability to formulate the bigger picture.

Siddons is the head coach, not a specialist batting or bowling coach. He should be motivated to lead the team and get them playing to the best of their ability. His role is sorting out why Ashraful is still playing suicidal strokes day after day, why Tamim still gets run out in atrocious fashion and why Mashrafe and Rubel continue to bowl length balls at the death.

For Siddons the real trouble seems in not solving the problems but identifying them. His adherence to 'fine-tuning' shows that he is afflicted with tunnel vision and chooses not to focus on the importance of vision and far-sightedness that should be the hallmark of an ambitious coach for an aspirant Test playing nation. But perhaps that is not his fault. Maybe he is just not cut out for it.

I agree with the reporter.

JS has some similarities with us, the Bangladeshis, by nature. He never likes to accept his failure and tries to put the blame to someone else's neck.

[mafizraju]

Originally Posted by layperson
I am anti siddons. Yes my position has changed since Siddons started out. The first time I heard about his appointment I was very excited given his background. A few months into his coaching came out the vacations every now and then. This along with his attitude turned me around. My perspective about Siddons' coaching is much more aligned to the following article in DS titled "Jamie lacks perspective" :

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig....php?nid=94639

The writer of that article lacks some serious perspective.

As we all know there are a number of reasons why BD team is failing : Technical ability is surely one of them. And this is something a coach can work with and Jamie is working on these.

Micromanagement to some extent remain necessary for bangladesh given our sporting history and unstructured cricket that we play. In international arena to do good, you need to consistently work out your flaws and fix them, otherwise opposition will work on those (Check out the performance of suresh raina in last month or so you will know what I mean).

Jamie still does other planning which a head coach needs to do, but he needs to work on the individual batting and performance. Our players came ot international fold with tons of technical flaws and it takes time to fix them.

Precisely the improvement of technical abilities and micromanagemnet are two of many other things necessary for the team to improve.

[mafizraju]

Originally Posted by WarWolf
From the report of the DS...
I agree with the reporter.

JS has some similarities with us, the Bangladeshis, by nature. He never likes to accept his failure and tries to put the blame to someone else's neck.

-------------------------

I am not quite sure of that. Since he is not the person batting in the middle, so its never his fault for playing bad. And he never blamed onother person. He pointed out the flaws of the team consisting "other" people. It remains his challange to fix those problems and gaps. SO precisely when he blames his players lack of ability and concentration he is critisizing himself in a way.

[WarWolf]

Originally Posted by mafizraju
-------------------------

I am not quite sure of that. Since he is not the person batting in the middle, so its never his fault for playing bad. And he never blamed onother person. He pointed out the flaws of the team consisting "other" people. It remains his challange to fix those problems and gaps. SO precisely when he blames his players lack of ability and concentration he is critisizing himself in a way.

As a team plan maker and head of the coaching stuffs, he has some responsibility. If the team plays well then he gets credit. Similarly if the team plays terribly like now, he must share the blame.

[layperson]

Originally Posted by mafizraju
The writer of that article lacks some serious perspective.

As we all know there are a number of reasons why BD team is failing : Technical ability is surely one of them. And this is something a coach can work with and Jamie is working on these.

Micromanagement to some extent remain necessary for bangladesh given our sporting history and unstructured cricket that we play. In international arena to do good, you need to consistently work out your flaws and fix them, otherwise opposition will work on those (Check out the performance of suresh raina in last month or so you will know what I mean).

Jamie still does other planning which a head coach needs to do, but he needs to work on the individual batting and performance. Our players came ot international fold with tons of technical flaws and it takes time to fix them.

Precisely the improvement of technical abilities and micromanagemnet are two of many other things necessary for the team to improve.

The writer is not saying micromanaging is a bad thing,however what he implies is that siddons has lost the bigger picture while trying to micro manage. But my bone is not with that. He is the coach of an international cricket team playing test cricket. Your job as a coach of a test team should not be to micro manage. Developing flaws in technique are done at a lower level not at international cricket level. You can tweak techniques to suit certain conditions but to look at each and every technical fault of the players at this level and working with those faults is not the national team coach's job. That should be for the age group coaches. If technique was more important then Chanderpaul, ganguly, sehwag would not have been such tremendous success in world cricket. The bangladesh team coach needs to work with the technique the players have right now and teach them to play within their limitation. His main job as far as I am concerned is motivating the players and mostly psycological rather than technical. As far as techniques go Bangladesh players dont lack in that department too much. I dont think you can pinpoint failure of our batsmen to technique. It is more about shot selection and temperament. In focusing on the minute details like backlift of Sakib siddons might just be forgetting that his job title is HEad coach and not batting coach. If he could do both with equal success I would have no problem with him micromanaging. However he seems to have failed in his main job as a head coach.

[WarWolf]

Very good post Shahriar.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
haha, i guess in 6 weeks when the WI series is over, he'll be back in the land down under in more ways than one!

Bd directly flies in to Zim after beating WI.

[reinausagi]

First of all, if we want the coach not to be absent when the team returns from abroad, we need to bring Shahidul Alam Roton ( a local) back from the UK and make him the BD team coach. I found value in being informed that progress was being made in Tamim and Shakib\'s batting techniques. If we can get these two to hold on to their wickets longer, the team benefits. What is the \'Bigger Picture"? Is it not get more youngsters to play cricket, identify potential, give them access to formal training earlier, and start winning a larger percentage of games? I very much doubt that the BCB panel that Inteviewed Siddons, forgot to ask him about that. I know we are upset at losing to Ireland- but let\'s not take it out on Siddons. He's on our side.","

[layperson]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
Bd directly flies in to Zim after beating WI.

Hahaha I like your arrogance. I feel upbeat about the WI tour as well. We also perform when our back is agains the wall. Morevoer, we have removed ashraful from captaincy so the chap has a thing or two to prove with the bat. I fear for the WI bowlers.

BTW, I was against having ashraful removed from captaincy in the first place simply because we dont have any better alternative at this stage. MAshrafee I feel is not captaincy material. I would have waited for a few more years and switched captaincy from AShraful to Sakib. I fear Mashrafee might fail as a captain and we might lose a good bowler in the procees. But je howar hoye gese. I think we are in for some good times in WI.

Centuries, five for's, wins will galore and since we will be in the islands, some BOOZE and PArtying too for our cricketers Naz_ca koi ?

[uss01]

I think Mahmud should be head coach and Siddons should be assistant coach!

[layperson]

Originally Posted by reinausagi
First of all, if we want the coach not to be absent when the team returns from abroad, we need to bring Shahidul Alam Roton ( a local) back from the UK and make him the BD team coach. I found value in being informed that progress was being made in Tamim and Shakib\'s batting techniques. If we can get these two to hold on to their wickets longer, the team benefits. What is the \'Bigger Picture"? Is it not get more youngsters to play cricket, identify potential, give them access to formal training earlier, and start winning a larger percentage of games? I very much doubt that the BCB panel that Inteviewed Siddons, forgot to ask him about that. I know we are upset at losing to Ireland- but let\'s not take it out on Siddons. He's on our side.","

I disagree. Whatmore was not a local coach and he did not take vacations every now and then.

Bigger picture for the head coach would be to win more games and be consistent in our performances.
Getting more youngsters involved, identifying potential giving them access to local training is for the BCB and its age group coaches, not national team coach's job. Eddie Barlow for example had a different job with BCB, director of coaching (or something similar). FOr him all the above would have been the bigger picture but for Siddons or any other head coach the only bigger picture is the bottom line, more consistent performances and more wins. He has failed in this regard. I blame lack of consistency on the coach's failure to motivate the team, teaching the players to play within their limitations, wrong attitude.

[auntu]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
Bd directly flies in to Zim after beating WI.

That's the reason: You are one of my favorite poster here...

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by auntu
That's the reason: You are one of my favorite poster here after Gopal...

hahaha...you are too kind auntuda...

[auntu]

Originally Posted by Gopal Bhar
hahaha...you are too kind auntuda...

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