Australia Ho!

[samircreep]

And now we go to Australia, the final frontier.Before we go, I would hope that the Board settles a couple of very important issues.

1. Captaincy: Shujon is a good captain and I woud say better than Pilot. he marshals his troops really well, plus he seems to have galvanized our cricketers, something that would have been difficult after the Great World Cup Debacle.But the problem lies with his abilities in the longer version of the game.Although he is a gritty customer, Shujon is not a test allrounder and I have to say that he does not merit a place in the test team. So what to do?

2.Pilot's omission:This is a pretty serious issue.Pilot is one of our most dedicated and committed cricketers, and his arbitrary(and I say arbitrary since till now, the Board has only fed us with ridiculous reasons and quasi-truths) omission is a bad omen for future selection policies.What are the incentives for our future captain (who will be on the helm sooner than later since Shujon's tenure at the helm will not be long) when he sees his worthy predecessor treated like crap by the Board?Wicket-keeping might truly be a thankless job, but unless the Board comes up with valid reasons for dropping players like Pilot, we will not be producing committed cricketers.

3. The "Akram" factor: We have a cricker who's "officially" 34, can't play fast bowling and hasn't come up with a fifty in....I can't even remember the last time, and yet has been consistently selected over young talent. The last phrase is the most damning since I think the Board clearly needs to sort its "youth" policy out. Frankly speaking, for obvious reasons, I would rather see a kid fail than a veteran. In this case, we have Tushar who came up with a fluent 49 against Kenya when the chips were down and has shown sufficient promise to warrant him a place in the long run, and yet we see Old Man Akram blocking his way. The last series was the ideal place to groom a middle order bat like Mazharul, Rajin Saleh and even Nafiz Iqbal (which is really ironic...your old Kaku standing in his way now) and yet we fall back on Akram. My point is, can we please have consistent youth policy to our selection?

Ok, nuff venting.I'll come up with some more points later....but i wanna hear from you guys now.

[rezwan]

you've raised some very important issues that need to be dealt with ASAP... sujons captaincy might be good but he is just an ordinary player.. dont see him getting runs and holding up the middle order or taking vital break trough wickets.. as for akram he is well past his expiry date and we need to bring in promising players like tushar and nafiz iqbal to replace the old guard..

[Piranha]

I wouldn't call Australia the final "frontier". Its more like "final humiliation". Humiliation has triumped in every part of the globe that we have stepped in, Australia promises to be the biggest and most humiliating.

[fwullah]

Akram Khan is thinking about his retirement - as I posted on another thread.

Although we think that his time is gone, but lets not forget what he has done for Bangladesh over the years. And I would thank him for talking to the press that he has been thinking of retirement.

Let us all give the Big Man a big cheer.

[rafiq]

australia may be further humiliation, but it also represents a new start. we will have a new coach, the team will have some time to decompress, the board/selectors will have some time to digest their own incompetencies and, as a reward, go shopping in bangkok. i think whatmore should have worked in some considerable selection power into his contract, so am hoping we will see a new captain at least for the test side - maybe bashar - after people have time to evaluate the longer term impact. sujon was probably chosen hastily because the SA/India tour was coming up so soon after the WC and they weren't sure if bashar could keep his place on the team.

so all in all a new start - let's hope some better decisions are made in the interim.