'We may have relaxed' - Shakib

[Neel Here]

this is as bad as it gets. time to change my sig I guess.

..........
'We may have relaxed' - Shakib

Sriram Veera in Mirpur

January 27, 2010

It was a stunningly candid revelation by Shakib Al Hasan in the press conference. "When Shahadat [Hossain] and [Mohammad] Ashraful were batting we may have got slightly relaxed. They had made batting look easy. We were laughing and chatting in the dressing room and somewhere, at some point, we relaxed and we were not thinking about the game as much as we should have done." If only the perceptive awareness that this quick post-mortem analysis reveals, had kicked in earlier.

Even Zaheer Khan, the wrecker-in-chief, was surprised by the implosion. "It was surprising. Looking at the conditions, it felt they could have fought that phase and made things tough for us." But it was a strange day. In a Dhaka minute, everything changed.

When Shahadat and Ashraful were batting, one smelt fight in the air, felt their sense of purpose, thought about India missing two batsmen, and caught a brief glimpse of the possibility of a memorable fightback. There was not a single moment to relax. Bangladesh did and they lost the match. It wasn't a surprise that they lost but one was taken aback by how quickly it all happened. And yet, the pleasant sun-lit morning had promised so much.

Even India, it seemed, were on the back foot initially. The fielding was getting ragged, overthrows happened, a catch was dropped, the fielders were pushed back, MS Dhoni was forced to make a few bowling changes and the pitch, as it seemingly does in these times, appeared to get flatter. "The pitch got slower and lower", Zaheer Khan said later. "There was nothing major for spinners and it was the fast bowlers' responsibility to put their hands up."

Initially, even Zaheer was unable to make a breakthrough. Shahadat and Ashraful had added 50 runs in 13 overs and it wasn't just the quantity of runs but the manner in which it came that raised the hopes of a lead and a fascinating end-game. What caught the eye was of course Shahadat's brazen approach, but it was Ashraful's attitude that gave hope. He wasn't intent on self-destruction, he wasn't living on the edge and he wasn't struggling. In fact he looked almost calm and pushed the ball into gaps and lived off deflections. It was the closest he got to serenity in this series.

It's at this time the players in the dressing room must have relaxed. One can understand why it happened, but it is something that the captain Shakib and coach Jamie Siddons should sort out. The rest of us will shrug it off saying, "That's Bangladesh cricket for you".

Shahadat had to fall at some point; he had done his job and even Ashraful fell to a good ball - Pragyan Ojha got one to turn and jump to force a hurried prod. It is at this point that everything started to go wrong. Shakib walked in and clouted his first ball over long-on. There was nothing wrong in that as Shakib explained later, "It was there to be hit". Perhaps it was. However, he soon fell to a fatal shot, trying to create something out of nothing. It was the beginning of the end.

Shakib is a busy batsman and likes to play his shots but perhaps this time he got too ahead of himself. His critics will ask if the shot was on, given that there was a man at short-leg. Maybe, the ongoing controversy involving the alleged rebuke from the BCB president, got to him and he felt the urge to make a statement on the field. Perhaps, it was just a brain-freeze resulting from over confidence. Or perhaps it was simply a case of a wrong execution of a shot that he plays so often and has done so well in the past. Who can tell?

Shakib tried to answer: "When I got in to bat, my plan was to just bat. The first ball was there to be hit. The sweep shot that I got out to… I just mistimed it."

Was it just an answer for the press or the truth, we wouldn't know, but it doesn't reveal much about his state of mind at that juncture. His statement about how team had relaxed offers a better pointer, perhaps.

Zaheer sensed an opening when Shakib fell and hit them hard. It was too much for Bangladesh and they were knocked out.

Tomorrow's local papers are going to be filled with passionate anger over the collapse. Shakib must have been stunned by the reaction at the press meet. As soon as he finished his "relaxed" statement, he was staring at several pupils dilated in anger. And angry questions. He seemed to be taken aback by the intensity. It was a sad way to end the series for Shakib, who has been dignity personified through out. He did not react emotionally to Virender Sehwag's statements, he stood up for his team when he perceived that the BCB president was making unreasonable allegations, he did not wash dirty linen in public and supported his team-mates. In the end he must have felt very alone out there.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinfo

[smashyboy]

Whether Sehwag respects the opposition off the field or not but Bangladesh players don't respect opposition on the field. They take the opposition for granted. Hence the relaxation.Either that or they want to impress their childhood idols on the field. Michael clarke yesterday dominaetd Pakistan without "actually dominating them". He reached his 50 in 60 odd balls without a single boundary. You don't have to go hammer and tongs at opposition to stamp your superiority. Pay respect to opposition.

[amar11432]

Holy Crap, this guy Shakib may have the brains of a 10 year old kid. God help us.

[Rabz]

They got relaxed?? Who are they?? Indian test team, No 1 ranking team in the world??

Who knows, may be they do lack in committments.
If they were relaxed at such a phase of the game, i dont know when they would be so serious!!

[DJ Sahastra]

To admit something like this says a lot about a player. I think Sakib is brutally honest. I can't help but like him for that.

To get relaxed is a human trait. He'll learn from it. And i disagree with him that relaxing brought about the downfall. It was an extraordinary spell from Zaheer. Sakib was the only ne who may be guilty of playing an unwanted shot.

[Rabz]

DJ, you cant afford to be brutally honest when you are the captain of a national team.
Just ask Shehwag.

Hec, he is just 22.

[fais]

oh...shakib is so utterly screwed!

[DJ Sahastra]

Originally Posted by Rabz
DJ, you cant afford to be brutally honest when you are the captain of a national team.
Just ask Shehwag.

Hec, he is just 22.

Rabz, true, but it is a virtue that i admire. I am sure with time, he will learn to say things that are obvious and redundant and don't say much like 'we had a bad session' or 'we had a bad hour of play' or 'Zaheer bowled well' etc. Until then, we should stop crucifying him for failures that don't have one particular reason or explanation. A team feeling relaxed does not lead to catastrophe nor does an attempted aggressive shot. It is always a combinations of many things.

[skhondoker]

Originally Posted by Rabz
DJ, you cant afford to be brutally honest when you are the captain of a national team.
Just ask Shehwag.

Hec, he is just 22.

that is true...look what his honesty did to him with lotushya...

[Rabz]

DJ, I'd never say you are not right, cuz you are.
I know that. Those honesty and virtuous qualities are good.
But you know, feelings are a bit reserved at the moment.

[Ashraf-FTP]

LOL.. Thanks for being honest, And also thanks for losing the game.. Whats the next thanks gonna be for?? Thanks for getting sacked as the captain?? I wonder

And i really think we should just flip our batting order upside down, I think Shahadat proved why..

[Nadim]

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[ialbd]

ki koy beta????

entire time when Ashraful & Shahadat was batting... I think I was the most worried (maybe after the last few overs of the day on Day 3 when Tamim & Junaid got out).... as I knew there was a bigger chance of Ashraful getting out before Shahadat...

and they were chatting & laughing in the dressing room?? Is that how it is? we never see the collapse coming.....

'we are improving, we needed to bat well etc etc etc' shunte birokto lage after every defeat..... but eigula shunle to ga joila jay......

[WarWolf]

I am happy that he admitted it rather than seeking lame excuses.

[Equinox]

In the end Shakib proves that Lotus Kamal was indeed right. They are nothing but an irresponsible bunch of kids. I remember visiting them last year during the warm-ups pre-T20 World Cup. I was surprised to hear the conversations they were having. It ranged from everything you could imagine but no one was talking about cricket or the match going on.

[fwullah]

Originally Posted by ialbd
ki koy beta????

entire time when Ashraful & Shahadat was batting... I think I was the most worried (maybe after the last few overs of the day on Day 3 when Tamim & Junaid got out).... as I knew there was a bigger chance of Ashraful getting out before Shahadat...

and they were chatting & laughing in the dressing room?? Is that how it is? we never see the collapse coming.....

'we are improving, we needed to bat well etc etc etc' shunte birokto lage after every defeat..... but eigula shunle to ga joila jay......

This is why I believe Ashraful should never play for Bangladesh EVER AGAIN. He has a bad influence on the team. Like you, I wasn't thinking that Ashraful would be getting out before Shahadat, but I always knew (and it did happen) that once Shahadat is out, Ashraful will be gone too, since this has been the trend for the BD team in this month - doesn't matter if its an ODI or a Test match.

Whenever a set batsman is out after a long-enough partnership, the other set batsman does not take long to get out.

[Eshen]

Shakib at this point looks like out of guts. Shahadat seems to be a better candidate for captaincy than he does.

[Naimul_Hd]

whaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt theeee frraaccckkkkkk ??????? am i reading it properly or just shakib is the biggest FOOL of the year whom we thought as a cunning ?????????? first few bold sentences were enough for me to judge his mental situation, i dnt need any explanation from him to make me understand. Mr. LOTA u got my vote from now on ! (ragey ga joley jacche) :@:@:@:@:@:@

[Eshen]

Here is daily star's take on the matter -

Shakib loses the plot

Is there any scope for a professional cricketer to relax at any stage of a match? You will get interesting answers if you take the words of Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, who came up with self-contradictory statements in almost every question during the post-match briefing after his team's surprising surrender on the fourth morning of the second Test against India at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

After the press conference it was hard for many to believe whether Shakib was the same man who has always been a portrait of confidence even at the age of only 22. Did one bad defeat make him fickle? At one point he said that he was not sure about the reasons behind the sudden collapse, then again he came up with some explanations, though funny.

Believe it or not, according to the young skipper, his batsmen were in a relaxed mood in the dressing room when Mohammad Ashraful and night-watchman Shahadat Hossain were batting and that actually caused the dramatic collapse.

And after the debacle the realisation was that the Tigers were not mentally strong enough to cope with the pressure. "We were laughing in the dressing room when the two overnight batsmen were batting because we thought that the wicket was very easy to bat on. Every one of us was thinking of going out in the middle and start whacking the ball," was the surprise answer from the Bangladesh captain, who started his innings with a six before mistiming a sweep against left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha to reach the safe hands of Gautam Gambhir at square leg.

Then wasn't there someone in the team management, or particularly the coach, who could warn them? Shakib now took a U-turn by saying that: "Zaheer [Khan] bowled really well and got the reverse swing to cause the damage. We were also nervous, as most of the top-order batsmen except Tamim were not in good touch."

And it was also his observation: "The wicket was very good to bat on, but we could not apply ourselves properly. Our game plan was not correct."

"Actually our mind-set was wrong. And what I believe is that we are not mentally strong enough to cope with this kind of situation," he also added.

India's master batsman Sachin Tendulkar visited the Bangladesh dressing room after the presentation ceremony to give some advice, but no advice will be enough if the problem lies in your basics.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=123796

[AsifTheManRahman]

It's OK to relax in the dressing room but unacceptable once you're on the field, because that's when you should mean business.

It takes guts for one to come out and admit something like this. Guts and, one may argue, stupidity.

[Naimul_Hd]

i would have called this "GUTS" if he had said " after some quick wickets we felt nervous and thus we broke down as cards"

==> then we could have realized that he admitted the weakness of their young players and he is honest enough to admit it !


but look at his reply : "They (shahadat n Ash) had made batting look easy. We were laughing and chatting in the dressing room and somewhere, at some point, we relaxed and we were not thinking about the game as much as we should have done"

===> this is not only stupidity but a CRIME !

[dolcevita]

hope they will learn BANGLADESH Team is too young : average age : 21 years
wheras India , all their player are around 30....;

[Eshen]

^^ Talking about Indians, even their U/19 team know how to be professional when playing a competitive match. Mental immaturity of our players are inexcusable.

[Eshen]

IMO, the root cause of the problem (ie players being so easily complacent) is the management. Back in the time Whatmore stayed grounded even when the team won matches, and now Siddons showers his charges with praise even when they lose by big margins!

What is Sujon doing in the management?! Both he and Kalpage prolly need to go back to the academy.

[Beamer]

With Sakib, its whats you see is what you get. He is going to speak his mind. Though its a virtue, but a captain needs to be a bit more diplomatic, since he is also the de-facto spokesperson of the team. Its all part of the process. At least his integrity can't be questioned. Wait? somebody did that already..