A critique to Richard McInnes, The U19 coach

[bangla_amar]

I agree with adnan. He made all the valid points against this guy. I would just want to add one more thing. If u-19 coach was someone from subcontinent, I am sure everyone in this forum including mcinness fans would have been crying out loud to get his head . I think his only credential is he is from Australia and that is why some of us still want to give him some try. Otherwise why would we still want to pursue with him after the worst result with the strongest ever u-19 team?


I also agree with Raj..how on earth BCB gives free ride to this guy?

[Zobair]

bangla_amar that is not why I am advocating more time! Actually I invite you to dig up my posts even when Mohsin Kamal or our own Sarwar Imran were our coaches...each and every time I have advocated for sufficient time before passing judgement on them. Anyways, I am done with this thread.

[bangla_amar]

All right pompous fair enough. Give him some more time and I would advise him to talk less, work more and produce results.



[Edited on 20-2-2004 by bangla_amar]

[Tehsin]

McInnes apart, let's not forget that it was our boys who lost those games. I am not bothered by the loss to India, I am bothered by the way we did it. Same hing with the NZ match, we had the game in our hands and we just couldn't finish it.

Coach does carry some of the burden of the results and at this moment McInnes is a villian to the press because of his big you know what. He needs to tone down as quoting bangla_amar "I would advise him to talk less, work more and produce results."

However, he is under the microscope right now. We have a very talented team but it has not produced any results (I wouldn't count wins against Nepal or Scotland as results). We have three non test playing opponents in the plate group which we should win and go on to play Australia in the plate final. After that, McInnes needs to have BCB hire a press correspondent and focus himself on the next batch. We are paying him good money.

One last thing, not batting against Scotland may have actually saved us. Did you ever stop to think that we could have stunk (and the possibilities are great) and got ourselves all out for around 200 - who would you have blamed then ? The coach ?

[Pundit]

I think this is a betting scandal in the brew !

[observer]

To the moderator, could you please post this in your website to clear up a few myths regarding our performance at the World Cup.
To the author, Mr Adnan Sadeque, to whom I have never met nor spoken to, but would appreciate the opportunity to sit and discuss cricket with him

Can I make a couple of points regards your critique:

 Coaches – to my knowledge and after having reviewed the status of coaching accreditation in Bangladesh, there are still only 3 coaches, qualified higher than Level 1 working within the BCB. If there are other coaches working within Bangladesh I would love to meet them and get them involved. To me, this is the key to creating a stronger test playing nation. We need to have qualified coaches working at all levels of the game to improve the overall standard.
 Match pressure: the question at the press conference was, ”Did I think the occasion got the players?’” I said that the players would have been affected somewhat by the crowd and the expectation, they are only human after all. I did not however say that it was why we lost. We were beaten by a superior team on the day.
 The toss: After much deliberation between the selection panel of the captain, both coaches and two senior players, the group decided that our best option was to bowl first, and gain maximum out of the wicket if there was to be any life in it at all, it would be early. The NZ India game exposed this where the ball moved around for the first 20 overs. Had the Indian’s won the toss they were going to bowl first as well. Hence they played 3 seamers as well, instead of the two they played against NZ.
 The option of bowling first was trying to play to our strength, we backed our bowling attack to get early wickets and expose their middle order, who had not scored many runs to date. The two openers batted very well. We created a few chances and missed a couple of catches. No one means to drop catches and we have worked very hard on our fielding, along with all other aspects of our game. Had a couple of chances worked our way it may have been a different game.
 The Indian team, have several players with extensive Rangi Trophy experience, some of whom such as Ambati Rayadu, who has a first class averages of 45. A quality first class competition where there is tough cricket is played consistently, is essential to developing players once they leave the Under 17 ranks. After this age group the game is more mental then, skill related. We have a group of players with skill and natural ability. But we lack the ability to sustain our concentration and temperament in the face of quality bowling, over a sustained period to time. The reason for this is that they players are rarely exposed to such bowling. We have players with first class or Test experience. We must be careful, when saying this though. One or two test matches doesn’t provide an extensive amount of experience. If a player has played a dozen tests of ODI’s and performed well then they can it can be said, that experience is of real value to the program. I am sure that many of the players in the U19 squad will go on to play many years of successful test cricket and I want to hel pt hem reach that goal.
 Talha Jubaer – Tahla Jubaer is injured and has a prolapsed disc in his spine which we only discovered after sending him for an MRI on the 16th of Feb. We had previously been informed that he had already had an MRI and that it was all clear, hence that path was not pursued earlier. Talha may have been able to bowl 4 to 5 overs in the Indian match. Only prior to the Indian game could he bowl pain free, after to succumbing to his injury on the day before the NZ game. Combine this with the fact that he has hardly played a game of cricket in two years, the decision not to select him ahead of the other bowlers was not an easy one, but one that as a group with thought was correct. I do not question Talha’s ability at all and selected him in the WC squad on the basis of watching him bowl twice. He was a risk we carried into the competition hoping he would get through. Unfortunately it did not work out that way.
 The NRR is based on runs scored per over faced, not just runs scored against runs conceded per over. So therefore, all we had to do was beat India, as our NRR was higher than NZ by about 0.6. We scored 96 off 12 overs which was actually worth more than NZ 380 and just less than India’s 425. Had Nafees not blocked out the 11th over to give Naeem the strike to enable him to get 50 we would have had a better NRR for the Scotland match than India. The rules are written quite clearly in the participating nations agreement.

Thank you and I enjoy the web site, keep up the good work.

Cheers
Richard McInnes
National Under 19 Coach

[chinaman]

Dear observer

We love to add this article in our site.

Please check your U2U message. If you have difficulties in U2U, please let us know. Thank you.

[reverse_swing]

well said Mr. Observer

[chinaman]

Thank you Mr. McInnes for your well thoughtout article and choosing our platform to express your voice. This should clear up some real myths.

We'd love to hear from you time to time.

[Arnab]

This is nice. We need to post some biting critiques of Dav now.

[Navarene]

Originally posted by chinaman
This should clear up some real myths.

Are we convinced enough that this article should clear up all the myths and the questions that were raised by Adnan in his critique? I doubt not! He didn't even justify the fact that whether or not his team should have elected to bat first against Scotland. The NRR explanation he gave is also arguable. And again, his explanation about electing to bat first against India was also not much convincing. About Talha, he was fit enough to play against India, according to every media report. Not sure whom to believe now.

Anyway, these are my thoughts about his article. No offence please.

[Ehsan]

Great to have you here Mr.McInnes, hope to hear more from you in BanglaCricket

[Edited on 21-2-2004 by ehsan]

[pial]

I've read at today's Prothom-Alo that our U-19 team uses the same shoes as Ausi national team, "Gatorade" drinks were imported for them from Australia.

Cann't realize why these were necessary.

[Orpheus]

This is too good! Mcinnes himself replied! I love this guy.....

get dav after we lose to Zimbos!

[Warlock]

I totally agree with Pompous about our U-19 coach- McInnes. He is working hard with the boys, which has been reflected in the results of the last few matches. We have beaten the Nepalese convincingly in the practice matches and came tantalizingly close to post a win against the Kiwis. The Indian U-19 team is very strong, probably the strongest among all the teams in the World Cup. We saw how they pulverized the Scotts! Bearings that in mind, I don’t think Bangladesh have played too badly against India.
As the coach of the national team- McInnes deserves his share of gratitude from us. The media is unnecessarily obsessed with McInnes’ so-called stubbornness. They should give the man a break! We should rally behind our players and coach and give them as much support as we can. We really need to get over this habit of criticizing the coach or the players whenever we lose.
Cricket is not played by sheer ardor or passion, which the Bangladesh fans don’t seem to understand. If we want to be a good team and start winning matches, we must be mentally tougher and hungrier. It goes without saying; we need a better infrastructure and qualified coaches (I guess that was what McInnes tried to say)!
I appreciate his goodwill to post a reply in our message board. He is certainly a busy man and after the loss against India he should be shocked just like any of us. Yet he has taken the pains to reply clearly to the critique. That was very thoughtful of him!
I for one would like to wish him good luck and further success.

[rafiq]

I think you guys are way off the top. Instead of analyzinig gatorade and aussie shoes, just take some chill pills folks. The team lost in a group they never expected to get out of to begin with. The last world cup was a humiliation, this one already is much better. Who knew we were on par with NZ and can finally beat Nepal comfortably? We even thought we should be able to take on India (me especially) based on improved performances in the first two games.

You are giving the media reports too much credit. Bangladesh media couldn't accurately report the size of a wart on their *** ifthey had to, what do they know about sports injuries?

The only thing I did not get in the McInnes reply was the NRR thing, after all the math doesn't lie. But how many major sports coaches do you know who will come on to a message board and reply to fans in a constructive manner. Be thankful for the dialog.

As for the doom and gloom over "this was our best chance ever" that is just BS. Don't we have any other players playing cricket - why should this be the best chance? And as for the conspiracy theories, that makes no sense - the only conspiracy is a few people trying to point fingers, sell newspapers, get traffic to their websites or whatever.

We should all be happy with bangladesh's improvements and not forget how much worse we sucked in the past.

kintu jai hok, dhonnobad.

[reverse_swing]

Well said Rafiq bhai. Excellent reply.

cheers

[rafiq]

Originally posted by pial
I've read at today's Prothom-Alo that our U-19 team uses the same shoes as Ausi national team, "Gatorade" drinks were imported for them from Australia.

Cann't realize why these were necessary.

I really have a problem with this line of thinking my friend. If all the wealth of Babylon can be imported for the benefit of a few almighty people in Bangladesh and we can turn a blind eye to that, why can't our cricketers wear the best shoes and drink friggin' Gatorade??

[pial]

I've no problem if they were given golden boots or drinks even from Mars if they could at least qualify for the super league.

The Ausi drink is no magic water that after drinking it they will be very good in the game; same with the shoes.

I think BCB could save that amout of money for buying another bowling mechine or something that's a necessity than luxury.

Originally posted by rafiq

I really have a problem with this line of thinking my friend. If all the wealth of Babylon can be imported for the benefit of a few almighty people in Bangladesh and we can turn a blind eye to that, why can't our cricketers wear the best shoes and drink friggin' Gatorade??

[Pundit]

All this rubbish has just gone too far ! None of you are paying for the coach's salary ! So just put a lid on it !!

And consider yourself priviledged to be able to follow your team playing a test. People from only 9 other countries get to do so.

[reinausagi]

Well done coach McGinniss! I've never been privy to coach's methodology after the fact.

Do pull up a chair to the laptop, pop open a Fosters and spend some time sharing your experiences with us, when your schedule allows. Once you get past this curious business of whet footwear/sports drink is sociologically acceptable for the lads, you will find us to be a passionate, but fair, knowledgeable bunch- and great students of the game.

[Zunaid]

This so-called "aussi" [sic] drink (or others of this ilk) is actually very necessary for real athletes and sportsmen. I am not sure whether Bangladesh manufactures good electrolyte replenishing drinks - of course we could go completely indigenous and use the "ack jawg pani, ack mutho chini ebong ack chamuch labon" formula invented by ICDDR'B.

Incidently, Gatorade is currently owned by the American multi-national Pepsico and is named after the University of Florida footbal team whose nickname is the "Gators". Gatorade was "invented" at UF College of Medicine’s renal and electrolyte division ...

There is a very interesting article about Gatorade here:

I quote excerpts:

The players’ electrolytes were completely out of balance, their blood sugar was low and their total blood volume was low. The impact on the body of this upheaval in chemistry was profound.

“Each of these conditions, by itself, would to some extent incapacitate a player,” Cade says in his oral history. “Put them all together and you can have real problems.”

With hard data in hand, Cade’s team began pursuing a remedy to address all these issues.

“The solution,” Cade says, “was to give them water, but with salt in it to replace the salt they were losing in sweat. Also, give them sugar to keep their blood sugar up, but not so much sugar that it would upset their stomachs.”

And thus Gatorade was born.

In this day and age of competitive sports - everything counts. Cricketers are no longer the weekend warriors - they are as much professional sportsmen as anyone else. If we want to be competitive with the best we have to be as fit and as well equipped as the best.

Even a friggin crappy pair of shoes can matter. The whole is bigger than the sum of parts.

Cheers,
Zunaid

[chinaman]

Tahla Jubaer is injured and has a prolapsed disc in his spine.

This is the most saddening news of all that came out from Mr. McInnes' article. A prolapsed disc (if it is true) is considered as permanent injury with recurrence and remission of painful episodes. It might effectively halt the career of a young promising athlete like Talha. I wish Talha Zubaer all the luck.

[Zobair]

awesome McInnes replied himself! this is historic....anyways, thanks for your clarifications. I would like to add that in the article that I wrote, particularly the part about Talha, was based on the assumption that the rumour regarding his injury being a fake was true. I hope you will continue to post with us. Please do not take any of the comments personally. We are all fans who love our teams

Thank God for the Internet.


Best of Luck to Talha. Inshallah he will recover soon.



[Edited on 21-2-2004 by pompous]

[tnb]

Thanks observer.
I was looking for the real reason behind Talha's exclusion. Its real sad. Hope the boy recovers soon.
thanks again.