Manager MA Latif blames lack of sufficient batting pratice for our Lords debacle

[amim]

Source: theDailyStar.net

Latif begs to differ
Al-Amin from Durham

When a team is not performing all sorts of problems creep in from here and there and it was more acute with the Bangladesh cricket team.

The cricketers are not only ones facing a confidence crisis after their demoralising defeat at Lord's it was also affecting the team management since the Tigers arrived in Durham on Monday afternoon.

Team manager MA Latif is usually a bundle of energy but he also looked uncomfortable with the state of affairs and blamed the Lord's debacle on insufficient training.


"To be frank he (Dav Whatmore) was totally focused on the training of his boys even before coming here. He knows the English conditions better than anybody else. I always insisted in Dhaka to do some extra training with the batsmen there. But it never happened," said the Bangladesh manager at Redworth Hall Hotel on Wednesday.

"I also did not find any reason for him to go with the Bangladesh A team to New Delhi for the Duleep Trophy. It seemed to me that there were other things on his mind rather than the game itself," said Latif without elaborating.

Whatmore was linked with the Indian job at that time after John Wright decided to quit.

Latif is also not happy with Whatmore spending time attending frequent interviews.

"When England went straight to training after their victory before lunch on the third day our team enjoyed breaks. There was a brainstorming session the following day but again the much needed training did not take place," observed Latif.

The team also failed to do any outdoor training at Durham and the boys of Whatmore were forced to train indoors on Wednesday due to inclement weather.

"When we were losing wickets one after another at Lord's we desperately needed the coach and the captain to sit and have a talk. But unfortunately the coach was busy giving interviews to the BBC at that time," said Latif.

Latif, who has been managing Bangladesh for two years, said that he also did not like the idea of a two-and-a-half-hour training session when English summer permits an extended time.

But Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar did not agree with the sentiment of his manager.

"I won't say that our training was hampered because Whatmore was

linked with the Indian job. The training went nicely. Maybe we had expected a better performance after a good home series and that did not happen at Lord's," said Bashar.

He also said that Whatmore was a renowned coach and could easily get a job anywhere else.

[BD Tigers]

ok, so dhil churachuri arombho hoilo. why now? it shud be after the series. May be latif thought that he is saying this to daily Star and Whatmore will not read that news paper. What a bafoon to bring these points now. And even if u did, why telling to the news paper..shud have told that to the BCB. He is just saving his own A$$.

Latif said lotta things . I also read somewhere he said : I don't know what coach is teaching them ?
Comments like that ...never makes a coach happy .......

[amim]

Well can't blame MA Latif for his comments. It seems like our batsman do no know how to play the short ball. If there was one thing that needed to taught that was it but instead Whatmore seems to be trying to defend himself rather than helping the BD team play better.

[One World]

Changes in attitude of Whatmore must be noticed here. Is he slowly moving away from his standing of a professional dedicated coach for BD team when he begun.
Also Bashar should not say anything. He deserves to be remain silent and show his captaincy in the field rather than in front of microphones.

[AsifTheManRahman]

hehe...kutnami shuru howe gese...

*sigh* we may see a bolir patha or two if we fail once again in the second test.

[TheWatcher]

Something is telling me that Whatmore is still pissed off that BCB had used their relation with BCCI to block him from racing for the Indian job. All his interviews sound like he is trapped with a hopeless bunch and he can't do much about it. If that is the case, I hope he is professional enough to get over his frustrations.

Edited on, June 2, 2005, 11:06 PM GMT, by TheWatcher.

[al]

BCCI might have done it to weaken BC team mentally. who knows. we should get over it

Edited on, June 2, 2005, 11:10 PM GMT, by al.

[Sauron]

Wow!!

Pre-game drama! Someone should put a plug in Latif's mouth.

[amim]

Well now that there is no vacancy for a coaching job in any Test side, Whatmore has no option but to stay with Bangladesh Team. Besides, if Indian Team thought Whatmore is that good then they would not care about leaving BD out without a coach. I don't think Whatmore was considered to be that good anyway after all, the same Indian team a year ago was ranked 2nd and was the only team to play well against Australia in Australia. Infact the 2 matches that were drawn India did better than Australia though the results were 1 - 1 in 4 test match series. So Greg Chappel is better than Whatmore .... just think about the amount BCCI will pay Greg ...

Indian batsman are already good enough ... but BD batsmen did so badly in their Indian tour .... We have a long way to go before we have a batsman who has half the storkes of Laxman.

[amim]

But Mashrafe and Irfan Pathan has a very similar test bowling average. Considering that Pathan got easy 10 wickets against us, Mashrafe did better than those stats may insinuate.

Edited on, June 2, 2005, 11:29 PM GMT, by amim.

[Dawah]

I would listen to Manager MA Latif complains carefully if I was in charge of BD cricket.

No one should be given a free hand, not even Whatmore. During 1st test, he should have been with the team, not at the commentry box. Even Banard made a comment about that saying "you won't see too many coaches out there at this time". [ie, instead of with the team, he is on the TV! ]

There has to be accountability of every one and all the time.

[PoorFan]

"I also did not find any reason for him to go with the Bangladesh A team to New Delhi for the Duleep Trophy. It seemed to me that there were other things on his mind rather than the game itself," said Latif without elaborating.

Whatmore was linked with the Indian job at that time after John Wright decided to quit.

Latif is also not happy with Whatmore spending time attending frequent interviews.

"When England went straight to training after their victory before lunch on the third day our team enjoyed breaks. There was a brainstorming session the following day but again the much needed training did not take place," observed Latif.

The team also failed to do any outdoor training at Durham and the boys of Whatmore were forced to train indoors on Wednesday due to inclement weather.

"When we were losing wickets one after another at Lord's we desperately needed the coach and the captain to sit and have a talk. But unfortunately the coach was busy giving interviews to the BBC at that time," said Latif.

Latif, who has been managing Bangladesh for two years, said that he also did not like the idea of a two-and-a-half-hour training session when English summer permits an extended time.

We made a huge mistake keeping Dav as our coach. We should have let him go. Above ltif's comment has huge point. It shows that there was no batting practice even after that lord test. England went straight to practice soon after their victory on 3rd day, because they know well the weather of coming days. But Dav lost that chance and lost entire outfield batting chance before today's test! May be he was busy with his post match analysis for BBC on that 3rd day! Any dumb coach of the world will go for batting practice after that miserable batting performance!!! I am really loosing my faith and respect on this man. The way he is acting and coaching, not seems to be a "High profile" coach to me any more.

MA Latif is the team manager, he has every right follow the team, and speak out what he think, afterall that's his job.
And Bashar?? If he don't see anything wrong with Dav's commentary on TV when they were in deep trouble, says a lot of his captaincy. It should be he, who shouting for the coach stay by their side, and ask for practice soon after that match ended. Nothing but a puppet!

[fwullah]

Latif is NOT a cricket manager. Both Faruque & Atahar are in London now (who are actually former national cricketer, not a retired army personnel with no cricket background whatsoever alongside Dav Whatmore.

Plus, I haven't forgot about 'R' thingy regarding Latif & his Urdu speaking while on national duty even after 20 years of independence of Bangladesh.

[mahbubH]

And Bashar?? If he don't see anything wrong with Dav's commentary on TV when they were in deep trouble, says a lot of his captaincy. It should be he, who shouting for the coach stay by their side, and ask for practice soon after that match ended. Nothing but a puppet!

Most of our players know what to say about a current coach. Just wait, when Dav leave this job lot of these players will start talking!!

I read somewhere that Mr Latif was in charge of BKSP. Someone commented like that "BKSP was at its best during Mr Latif's time becaus he was very strict about discipline."

[fwullah]

But Dav lost that chance and lost entire outfield batting chance before today's test!

If I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard the tv commentators say that Whatmore had done some net-batting practice with our players before the match started on Day 3 of Lord's Test. I don't know why Latif totally forgot to mention that.

[Dawah]

Originally posted by fwullah

Plus, I haven't forgot about 'R' thingy regarding Latif & his Urdu speaking while on national duty even after 20 years of independence of Bangladesh.

Is it wrong of Bangladeshis to speak any other language other than Bangla? I speak English most of the time, since my wife is British, and last time I was in BD was like 10 years. So, am I committing a grievous crime against Bangladeshi principles?

[fwullah]

I speak English most of the time, since my wife is British, and last time I was in BD was like 10 years.

English is our second language. Urdu is not. Also, Latif's wife is not Pakistani. Or, is she?

Edited on, June 3, 2005, 8:47 AM GMT, by fwullah.
Reason: Addition

[Dawah]

Originally posted by fwullah

English is our second language. Urdu is not.

So, English is ok, but urdu is not. And why is it so wrong to speak Urdu once in a while?

How about Hindi? The amount of Hindi movies that are watched by Bangladeshies, most of them can speak Hindi. Is it ok to speak hindi?

[PoorFan]

Latif is NOT a cricket manager. Both Faruque & Atahar are in London now (who are actually former national cricketer, not a retired army personnel with no cricket background whatsoever alongside Dav Whatmore.

So??? Latif is NOT a cricket manager, but he is THE TEAM MANAGER right? isn't it useful to hear him out carefully? if somebody have to be a cricketer, to be a TEAM MANAGER, then how come he doing that job in the first place? And all along with Faruk and Atahar and Dav has accepted that? If some one has to speak out it should be MA Latif, not ex cricketer Faruk or Atahar, because team manager is in the charge to that ( as far I know ).

Plus, I haven't forgot about 'R' thingy regarding Latif & his Urdu speaking while on national duty even after 20 years of independence of Bangladesh.

I also dont understand what "retired army personnel with no cricket background whatsoever" or "Urdu speaking incident in Pakistan" has to do with Latif's speak out.

[fwullah]

So, English is ok, but urdu is not. And why is it so wrong to speak Urdu once in a while?

Ami jodi ekhon ekhane banglai kotha boli, tahole koyjon manush amar kotha bujhbe?

Ami jodi ekhon ekhane hindi ba urdu-te kotha boli, tahole koijon manush amar kotha bujhbe?

Kintu, Ami jodi ekhon English-e kotha boli, tahole koyjon manush bujhbe?

Translation:

If I speak in Bangla now, then how many people will understand me? All the Bangladeshis and the Indian bengalis will understand my Bangla hundred percent. And Urdu, hindi speaking people will understand at least fifty percent of my bangla.

If I speak in Urdu or Hindi now, then how many people will understand me? Urdu or Hindi speaking people will understand my Urdu or Hindi hundred percent, and other South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Mayanmar, etc. whose languages are similar to Hindi or Urdu - they will understand my speaking fifty percent.

But, if I speak in English now, then everybody who are at least educated, will understand my English.

And I'm giving all these logics without reminding you (or anyone else) of our liberation war in 1971.

[Spitfire_x86]

Originally posted by PoorFan

So??? Latif is NOT a cricket manager, but he is THE TEAM MANAGER right? isn't it useful to hear him out carefully? if somebody have to be a cricketer, to be a TEAM MANAGER, then how come he doing that job in the first place? And all along with Faruk and Atahar and Dav has accepted that? If some one has to speak out it should be MA Latif, not ex cricketer Faruk or Atahar, because team manager is in the charge to that ( as far I know ).

I also dont understand what "retired army personnel with no cricket background whatsoever" or "Urdu speaking incident in Pakistan" has to do with Latif's speak out.

Agree with you. Latif has every right to speak his mind

[Dawah]

Wasn't he speaking Urdu with Pakis? I don't see why he needed to speak Urdu with suppose Dav Whatmore or Habitual Basher.....

Anyways, I do not want to go off topic. No more questions.

[PoorFan]

If I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard the tv commentators say that Whatmore had done some net-batting practice with our players before the match started on Day 3 of Lord's Test. I don't know why Latif totally forgot to mention that.

He was talking about after the match we lost on day 3 before lunch, as I understood.

[fwullah]

also dont understand what "retired army personnel with no cricket background whatsoever" or "Urdu speaking incident in Pakistan" has to do with Latif's speak out.

The 2nd part - "Urdu speaking incident in Pakistan" has to do with Latif's speak out - it means that Latif has a very big mouth, and it is a proven fact even before his speaking out to Daily Star on Whatmore today.

So??? Latif is NOT a cricket manager, but he is THE TEAM MANAGER right? isn't it useful to hear him out carefully? if somebody have to be a cricketer, to be a TEAM MANAGER, then how come he doing that job in the first place? And all along with Faruk and Atahar and Dav has accepted that? If some one has to speak out it should be MA Latif, not ex cricketer Faruk or Atahar, because team manager is in the charge to that ( as far I know ).

A team manager, who is not a cricketer, his responsibility is to see if the players have entered the hotel properly at the right time(no Pilot incident happens like during WC 2003), not poking around and saying on the back of the cricket coach and the 2 national selection panel members that they should have done this, or they should not have done that.

If a team manager has any complaints, then he has to give his written complaints to the BCB, not to a public newspaper which will only hamper the team spirit and the unity of the team (if even a drop of the team spirit is still existing among the team members, that is).

A team manager, who is not a cricketer, has exactly the same knowledge on cricket as cricket fans like you and I have, nothing more.