Proper Media Training for our sportsmen and sports management

[Zunaid]

We have a very long way to go before we have a professional sports infrastructure. We have amateurs and barely out of diapers kids who love with their parents entrusted with major responsibilities and we have mostly greedy and majorly incompetent politicians.

This shows when they speak to the media. This is the World Cup and these are supposedly professional athletes and administrators. The whole world is watching and hanging on to their every single word. Watching the press conferences after the West Indies debacle and watching Shakib put his foot in his mouth more than once was extremely painful. Equally painful were the press conferences by the Police and the BCB management after the West Indies bus incident. The players really need to be coached on what to saw and how to say it during these incidents. And the management must hire competent media professional who can manage communications at times of crises and learn to spin and do damage control for our benefit.

Additionally, we now live in a 24 hour news cycle and the explosion of social networks has also greatly increased the pace at which what you do and say reaches a huge audience in matter of minutes. They must all be trained to handle the new media just as well if not better.

One tweet from Gayle and the world knew of what happened before somebody even decided to call the BCB. It was news, even before our so called sports journalists from our tabloids er um newspapers have finished their nightly ablutions before turning in for bed. Even BanglaCricket was on the ball before anyone else - trying to do damage control in our own limited way the twitterverse and in a bigger way via "The Flowers for the West Indies" initiative. If our tweets and activities have been picked up and rewteeted by foreign media and press. Andrew Miller with followers in the thousands and a journalistic reach throughout the world, tweeted:

The Bangladesh fans network, @banglacricket, is sending flowers to the Windies team. Which is nice. A few bad apples etc http://j.mp/esvXRR
miller_cricket Yesterday
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I believe we at BanglaCricket have had more of an impact on Bangladesh Cricket the over the past 24 hours than most people will realize or will acknowledge.

I have had executive training on how to speak to the media in a previous job - even though it was for just a weekend, we were taught on how to speak to the media and when to speak and when to not. That is why I do acknowledge the media savvy of Coach Ian Pont in speaking to CricInfo when he did. I will go out on a limb and say that did help in rolling back a media maelstrom that could have engulfed us all. It still can but I do hope the BCB will take advice from professionals and act rapidly to stamp out any pockets fires that may still be buring.

And yes, they do exist. Consider the recent West Indies Player's Association press-release and the recent comments from the English. But most critically, we have the Anti-Andrew Miller at Cricinfo, Siddharth Monga, who seems to be continually fanning the flames. The BCB needs to put out the Monga and other such embers through a better use of media savvy and PR professionals.

For the long term, hire some media training coaches.

[Sohel]

Amen to all that

[F6_Turbo]

Fair enough comment...Such are the perils faced by a nation with no solid foundation or structure to fall back on.

I'm sure work is being done, but everything takes time, and it appears time is the one luxury we do not have.

Captains come, captains go...but replacements learn from the predecessor, but being such a young cricketing nation, we don't have a standard bearer to look towards. Our players are definitely becoming more media savvy, but the starting point was so low, that we are not yet up to scratch.

[Naimul_Hd]

মঙ্গা কে বুড়িগঙ্গায়ে ফেলতে হবে !!!! শয়তান একটা !!!

[auntu]

কোচদের মিডিয়া ট্রেনিংটা বিশেষ জরুরী। আগে একজন ছিলেন এখন মনে হয় অতিউৎসাহী দুই জন হয়েছেন...ব্যাপারটা সামলানো উচিত। ছবি তোলা এবং ভুল তথ্য আন্তর্জাতিক মিডিয়ায় দেয়াটা দুঃখজনক।

[sar2005]

solid point. The top managements of corporates who are already capable managers go through media management, presentation techniques and communication tricks and trainings.

[bujhee kom]

Chacha..very good shuta....kintoo bhalo cricket agey shikhuk, tarpore media training...ki bolen??

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by Zunaid
we have the Anti-Andrew Miller at Cricinfo, Siddharth Monga, who seems to be continually fanning the flames. The BCB needs to put out the Monga and other such embers through a better use of media savvy and PR professionals.

Tiger's qualification to the QF will shut Monga up for now, but we need a long term plan for Mr. Monga & Co.


Good and timely thread Zunaid bhai

[WarWolf]

Top post Zunaid bhai.

[nahaz]

Monga amar du chochk-er beesh. The way the guy put us down after the win against Ireland was appalling. Saying rubbish like we give up soon as Tamim departs. Basically made us sound on par with Netherlands. What a low-life. An don't anyone tell me he's speaking the truth etc etc. Him talking with his friends at home is different to writing on the World's most popular cricket website.

Even worse was how he attempted to keep the fire going abotu the bus incident when everyone else, including Chris Gayle, accepted the apology wholeheartedly. Somehow tried to equate couple of village hecks/worked up silly fans with Al-qaeda in essence. He tried to make it sound like someone will ambush the cricketers with weapons if we keep playing.

Let us not forget India had the whole Mumbai terrorist attacks a year back, not us. So if I was a player, I'd be way more sceptical about going to India than coming here. Only reason noone says they're scared of going to India is that all the money is there, e.g IPL. But Bangladesh is nowhere near as dangerous as India.

Let's not forget the organisation of the Commonwealth Games was a disgrace and a total disaster in terms of project management, in how late construction was and how bad the quality of service was.

Now that the incident is over, I think the fans did not need to say sorry so much. Chris Gayle is an idiot and should not have tweeted a second time with mentions of bullets and everything. Anyway, sending the flowers was a great move by Banglacricket, and was nice for West Indies to go out of the country on a high note, like they should after such a sweet victory for them.

Now on to Shakib. He should have just not commented with anything other than a "Its just another game in the World Cup. We are here to win every game. They are all important." when asked if the West Indies game was a must-win do or die situation. Trying to take pressure off by saying " we don't HAVE to win this game" was stupid. BTW, ENGLAND JUST WON AGAINST SAFFERS MEANING OUR QUARTER FINALS HOPES ARE ALMOST GONE. Of course, every win still would count to salvage pride and restore our dignity.

I do not like the idea of Pont getting too involved with passionate discussions with fans. I am scared that he might/ might have already let the guard down and let some secret information slip. One other note for moderators on this site. If someone ever posts information here such as "Tamim's hand is broken, saw him in the lift..he won't play in the morning" you might want to delete that as: a) Bookmakers etc. might use that info and players might get in trouble b) the opposition should not find out about anything they cannot find out from their media or ameteur scouts/spies.

[irampool]

Originally Posted by bujhee kom
Chacha..very good shuta....kintoo bhalo cricket agey shikhuk, tarpore media training...ki bolen??

: floor:

[Ian Pont]

[QUOTE=nahaz;1292602

I do not like the idea of Pont getting too involved with passionate discussions with fans. I am scared that he might/ might have already let the guard down and let some secret information slip. [/QUOTE]

Please. Give me SOME credit...

[HereWeGo]

Originally Posted by Ian Pont
Please. Give me SOME credit...

My apologies on his behalf.

It is definately an absolute pleasure to have the oppurtunity for such candid discussion with a high profile person as yourself.

[M.H.Rubel]

I think guy who need the media training most is Siddons.He can not handle the media properly and have a habit to bash the players infront of the media.

Posted via BC Mobile Edition

[al-Sagar]

Junaid bhai .....

does Banglacricket have a twitter account ????

if not then ....as Twitter is becoming a popoluar way to announce latest status, so i feel BC can also regularly tweet some important facts time to time .....

and also i remember something what happened during the Asian games at China. the cinese sports journalist who were not aware of different cricket rules were making wrong articles in papers. then China Govt barred all chinese sport journalists to write reports on cricket. after asian games they decided they will arrange a workshop and provide license to selected journalists to write reports on cricket.

so besides the sportsmen and management personnel i feel our journalists also need some training .....

[Rabz]

Top post Zunaid bhai.

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by offstump
Junaid bhai .....

does Banglacricket have a twitter account ????

That's how we got our word out so fast. @banglacricket

[AsifTheManRahman]

He was talking to Junaid...

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
He was talking to Junaid...

Or Zunaed?

[Zeeshan]

Or may be he was trying to pull a Gadsby

[babubangla]

অবশ্যই প্রশিক্ষণ প্রয়োজন...একদম গোড়া হতে...আবার বর্ণমালা দিয়ে শুরু।
স্বরে অ...অ তে অতি বড়
স্বরে আ...আ তে আমজনতা
"অতি বড় কর্তারা আলস্য করে
আর আমজনতা টুইটার মারে"...
একদম জীবনমুখী শিক্ষা!

[bujhee kom]

Accha dadas, Dr. Shaha-er ebong Mrs Shaha-er khobor ki? Unara kothai ebong ki korchen? I mean the Mental physician, psychologist? Unara naki ei team-er shathey ek diin kayaiye pura pagol hoye chakri chere BCB chere Dakha cherechen?? Kothata shotti naki?

[nahaz]

Originally Posted by Ian Pont
Please. Give me SOME credit...

Sorry. Don't take offense Ian.

Have to confess you did reply to a few of my questions as well. And it was an absolute pleasure hearing from one of the world's best in his field.

Just think that you could get in murky waters. But then you are more experienced in media handling and life in general compared to me.

And in terms of credit: from your talking about your coaching philosophy regarding bowling, I know you would've done a really great job with these players, as much as possible in this short time. Have a feeling/fear one way or another you mightn't stay our bowling coach for too long. Which is a great loss for us.

P.S: Just wondering what you think about the players and former players getting into this unnecessary mud-slinging match?
P.P.S: Sorry, did not mean to address you as Pont, as opposed to Ian/ Mr. Pont in my last post.

[Zunaid]

After Shakib's post match interview last evening, it is even now equally imperative that they be given a crash course in media management, on top of crash courses in batting, bowling, fielding, intent, heart and growing a pair.

[cricket_dorshok]

^ but who will arrange this. BCB and its bigheads themselves need a crash course on the professionalism.