Team Chemistry and Bangladesh

[Rinathq]

It's no news that our team is going through what possibly is one of the longest cold streaks and we have been discussing, mocking, arguing about various reasons and causes behind this streak. Reasons include technical inability, temperament issues, lack of adaptability in foreign conditions, attitude problems, captaincy issues and so on. I feel like one factor we have been ignoring recently is the fact that our team chemistry was never this bad. Couple of factors contributed to the decline in team chemistry for our team. I believe our side is separated between the cores and the youngstars. However, thats the story for every team around the world. However the attitude with our group differs from a perfect team example. I believe barring few, our cores feel a little insecure of their position and reputation with so many youngsters around. Because our cores are "cores" based on their match experience more than their talent or career statistics. This does affect the team chemistry at some point.

On the other hand, our youngstars seems to consider themselves youngstars forever and are not willing to take the responsibility of a core player. Take Nasir for example. He has been with the side for long enough to consider himself a core. The selectors sure considers him as a core. But his play translates a different story. Infact him on his earlier days had more intent and the willingness to take responsibility than currently. He is perfectly happy to "make the squad"

It also doesnt help when the captain starts blaming everyone for the defeats. Yes, I get it that Mushy is probably the most responsible and matured player but since when when did blaming others was a solution? Us spectators, the board, the coach can see which player isnt performing and who is to blame and where. You dont need to go on and announce your frustration about it in media. I have seen Mushy do this a couple times and unsurprisingly, this is the worst thing you can do to ruin your team chemistry. You dont always have to blame either your self or the rest for a mistake. Its a team game... The team wins when everyone contributes! Its the same way around. When the team loses, the blame is on everyone and it should be "us" not "them" or "myself"

Right now what I see is the players are quite happy to do their part and forget the rest. Yes if everyone plays their role well than the team wins but that is a fantasy at best. Surely there will be members in the team who will struggle at times and thats when the other member has to do the double duty to hold the team together. Right now everyone is so worried and insecure about their positions that they dont care what is happening with the rest. Mushfiq for example is just trying one thing after another and he seems to be fine with it as long as no one can point fingers at him. I didnt see him having a chat with the seniors very often when the team was in trouble because obviously that would mean him sacrificing his dignity or whatever you want to call it.

Have you guys noticed the wording of our players in recent interviews? I hear our players saying things similar to, "i want to improve against short deliveries", "I want to keep taking wickets", "I want to score runs and come back to my old form". How often do you hear a player saying, "I want to help my team win", "I want to help out the ones struggling". Sure they say it every once in a while but do they mean it? Its good to set a personal goal but at the end of the day the ultimate goal as an athlete of a team sport should be to bring victory for the whole team.

I think somehow the team chemistry needs to be revived. The players has to develop a relationship where they help each other and works on a collective goal. Dont just work towards a 50.. work towards a 100 partnership. If it means rotating strikes to give the other batsman more deliveries than be it. If it means to retain strike while the other settles in with the condition than be it. If it means to go for the wicket while the other bowler is trying to keep the economy low than be it.

At the end of the day, our players has to work as a team to correct their flaws, get out of a tight situation or keep the pressure alive.

Thoughts appreciated guys and please know the things I said is from my personal observation and I dont claim them to be the most accurate.

[Jadukor]

I feel that cricket is a passion for some and merely a job for others. The amount of time we make the same mistakes leads me to believe our cricketers never think on their own. They do not have an understanding of "match situation" because their minds are occupied with survival within the team. When we bat first we are never in a position to attack in the death overs. We have seen mushy or tamim slogging to get out and yet not call for the powerplay. We have seen set batsman being left stranded while tailenders get out trying big shots. Frankly all these things never make sense to me! Don't they ever listen to commentary or match analysis of Gavaskar, Bishop, Mark Taylor, Warne, David lloyd etc? How can you not learn after playing 100 international games?
But you are right about lacking chemistry. In other teams it works because the core players are consistent performers and they can take the younger players under their wings. Our core players have to battle like the rest to keep their spots

[Gowza]

partnerships are very important and so is wanting to help the team get the win but don't discount personal milestone, personal milestone can also be driven due to wanting to help perform for the team.

do you think ricky ponting when he wanted personal milestones only did it for himself? it was also partially because he badly wanted to perform for the team to get the win and to push the team to an entire different level.

problem that i see is that BD players don't have this sort of desire for personal, team or combined personal/team performance. they don't like to take responsibility, they don't like to work to improve and they become satisfied to easily.

as has already been said our players think just because they've played a lot of matches then they should be put on a certain level when mostly the only reason they played that many matches is because competition for team spots is poor.

also the point about BD players not learning about the game and match situations is a vital one. take experienced players from other teams and put them together with the experienced BD players, who do you think will have more knowledge of the game and can talk about it more indepth? the sad thing is the BD players don't seem to want to learn about the game either. i'll bet a sangakkara even at this stage of his career is much more willing and wanting to learn about the game so he can further improve than any of the BD national players.

[jeesh]

I think Hathurusingha will work towards this. But it ll take time. Even in the recent Prothom Alo interview he had clearly repeated his stance "Shakib is just like any other one of our player." Before also he reiterated one player doesnt make a team. These guys are professional coaches-all of them- Streak, Kalpage, Halsall, Mario. They will not show any favoration towards any player. And already we have seen him start a crackdown on lazy players, preventing his players from loitering about during training etc.

BCB also needs to step in. Problem is like any other South Asian country there is huge inequality amongst players. You get the superstars with faces all over billboards and then those for whom survival is still a challenge. Their ambitions, vision are also distinct and scattered. There have been reports in the past where players dont like to share rooms, some senior ones even offer to pay for their single rooms out of their own pocket. We ve also seen some guys complain about not getting business class seat. Use of mobile phone, coming out of the dressing room during match time. Even a glimpse at players during national anthem will reveal who is serious and who isnt. There were even reports of players going for shooting commercials before match. Which sane cricket playing country allows this?

Since majority of these guys dont have the right values, education, fame and money hits them in such a way they go awry. This is where rigid policies, standards etc must be set. From the very beginning- from Under 19. Rules shouldnt be bent for anyone.

This is a very good post rinathq. You ve highlighted a very key issue. Unless this is dealt with we ll keep having issues, and keep sacking coaches.

[Jadukor]

The problem is that the honeymoon period for the new coach will be very short because of our abysmal performances. If we had a win or two already things would have been better for him.
He needs to act fast and make the necessary changes before BCB goes after him.

[jeesh]

He has a 2 year contract to work with. Unless Bangladesh has a disastrous world cup or unless he wants to resign, i think BCB will be patient enough to allow him to see out his contract. But then again so few coaches have finished their contracts in recent times.

I hope we have a good series against Zimbabwe. Winning is infectious. Sometimes a win or two against a minnows will once again revive the taste of victory.

[mufi_02]

Very good analysis. Chemistry is lacking because there are many too fringe players nowadays --

Old ones trying to make a comeback (Kayes, Naeem, Shafiul)
New entries (Anamul/AlAmin/Taskin/Mominul/Shabbir/Mithun/Marshall/Shamsur)
Extinction level (Razzak/Gazi)
Near extinction level (Nasir/Riyad)
Core threatened (Tamim)

All these players are going back and forth like a revolving door and its not resulting in healthy competition but acting as mental pressure.

We don't know for sure if Muhsy is doing anything to build a chemistry. Maybe he doesn't do in on camera and all happens behind the curtain. We all know that he wrote personal letters to all players once early in his tenure. But his frustration and criticism of specific players is also damaging.

Maybe a small cruise will do something --

বাংলাদেশ দল অবশ্য বিনোদনের মধ্যে কাটাবে আজকের দিনটাও। আবহাওয়া ভালো থাকলে সকালে পুরো দল আর টিম ম্যানেজমেন্ট যাবে নৌবিহারে। নেভিসের কাছাকাছি কোথাও গিয়ে খেলোয়াড়দের জাহাজ আবার সেন্ট কিটসে ফিরে আসবে, এমনটাই পরিকল্পনা। তবে আবহাওয়ার পূর্বাভাস বলছে, সেন্ট কিটসে বৃষ্টি হবে আজ এবং আগামী কয়েক দিনও।
http://www.prothom-alo.com/sports/ar...A6%A6%E0%A6%A8

[Sohel]

Maybe chemistry is lacking because physics (cause and effect, mechanics, gravity etc.), biology (new wives, model girlfriends, cigarettes, dail, yaba, biriyani etc.), and economics (mula, mula and mo' mula) are more important subjects.

[Zeeshan]

If you want good chemistry we need badax m'f' like Heisenberg who can break bad get away with murders on field and destroy any opposition.

Expectation: Heisenberg
Reality: Sissies

[mufi_02]

This is what team chemistry can do!!

[22Yards]

wow what an effort. When one compares this to razzaks effort the other day, all questions are answered. A young kid who has no idea of cricket in Bangladesh probably has more passion for cricket than our players. I don't think we give 100% out there. This team is too full of themselves. I rather like the triple A, rajin saleh era, at least it seemed like they were trying to give their all but they were just not good enough.

[Zeeshan]

Reminds me of the time when I saw a Lakers game loooong time ago where this dude would pass behind him even though he could score, and the dude behind him would get it and instead of scoring to carry the tempo and momentum would pass BEHIND him for an ultimate lay up. GENIUS! These you cannot prepare. Happens on the spur of the moment when people get in the zone.

Couldn't find the video. Circa 2011 I think. Please do share if you find it.

[Jadukor]

Originally Posted by 22Yards
I rather like the triple A, rajin saleh era, at least it seemed like they were trying to give their all but they were just not good enough.

If they were good, they would have been full of themselves too.

[jeesh]

The route to the national team is too easy. And lack of competition means most players take their places for granted.

For instance in place of Sohag Gazi we sent in Elias Sunny. Why? Probably Faruque Ahmed thought he did well against West Indies in the past, so lets send him. What type of logic is that? Elias Sunny had a disastrous NCL with 11 wickets in 6 first class games, not even in the top 25. Neither was in the preliminary squad. Now Sunny will know why its so easy to get a free ride to the Bangladeshi team.

The entire system needs a relook, not just BCB's employee policies, but also how the selectors choose players. Faruque Ahmed imo has just been bad news for our cricket.

[Jadukor]

Yep Faruq is a disaster. First thing he did after coming was to bring back that worthless Farhad Reza

[Jadukor]

selectors need to watch the domestic matches and identify talent based on what they see and not scorecards and averages. Otherwise the same people will be picked which will result in failure over and over again. I believe we should gamble if a player has the talent even if he is inconsistent. We need to get them into A teams and development/high performance academy and bring their level upto international standard. Enough with sending Jahirul, Kayes Reza and co. to A team tours. These guys got enough opportunities.

[Rinathq]

I love you how every conversation about Bangladesh cricket diverts to squad selection......

[Tiger444]

Originally Posted by rinathq
I love you how every conversation about Bangladesh cricket diverts to squad selection......

so true

[reyme]

Team chemistry develops when the team has a smart leader who can often lead from the front.
And each and every player has a clear role defined and they know exactly what is expected from them. Of course you have to have passion and extreme desire to win at any cost. Some players have that say Anamul who gave all he had in the first ODI, only to see the game slipped away from a really good winning position due to poor captaincy or maybe some other reason. Definitely he was demoralized and no one probably gone and still congratulate him to lift his spirit for the next match. Our selectors rarely do a good job picking the right and effective set of players. They will often pick wrong players in wrong formats making it difficult for select 11 to win a match to begin with. Once the basics are right and we start to win, the winning combination will definitely start to gel together. Again the selectors must know winning combination should different against different team according to playing condition!

[Gowza]

team chemistry is also built on friendships and respect for one another, team bonding sessions are a good idea for a team that is struggling. hearing that players would rather pay for their own room rather than stay with a another team member tells the selectors that that player has issues working within the team and they should then be doing something about changing the players attitude or getting him out of the squad because stuff like that creates negativity and a bad vibe around the team and that will transfer over to on field play as well as many off field situations.