'We may have relaxed' - Shakib

[One World]

Your relaxation is the cost of four sleepless nights of an American migrant with three red-eyed work days. Your relaxation is the cost of a meritorious student who skipped past his course work and negotiated with a C or worse, may be a drop. Your relaxation definitely greater than the realization of the heart beats of 15 crores.

Really Celukas!

[bharat]

Cut some slack to Sakib guys ! To give some perspective both Ishant and Sakib made their debut in the same test ! Ishant had the luxury of going in and out of form , while Sakib on the other hand never had that luxury .

Poor Sakib is the captain of BD not because of choice but there were none capable enough to take the mantle .He has done a great job within his limits ...

[Beamer]

Cutting slack is something the lynch mob has no taste for. They want his head. They want Siddons head ( not very desirable ), and somebody even mentioned that Shahadat should be the captain, based on his nightwatchmen innings. High fever running here...

[One World]

May be the word "relax" was not the right choice to explain the situation.

[layperson]

Everyone needs to get off this guy's back. Sakib is doing a great job as batsman, bowler and captain. Also i dont support the idea of relegating sakib to number 7/8. He is an allrounder, a genuine one, he can get into the bangladesh team for batting alone and for bowling alone. I think in test matches he should bat at 6 since he does so much bowling, no less than 6. Riyad can come in at 5 since he seems to be in the team for his batting mostly and mushfique at 7. Sakib along with tamim are the best things going on for BD in the current crop of players. Leave the guy alone !!!

You can only correct and better yourself once you are able to admit your drawback. Admitting they were maybe a bit relaxed is the first step to not making the same mistakr again. Kudos to him. All those people shouting at this, there is no way for any of you to make this a big issue if he did not say it out loud in the press conference. The guy has balls and there is only one thing in this world that will take you places. Thats balls. His first ball sixer was also testament to this. The ball was there to be hit so he hit it. No two ways about it. I will watch the same group of people showering praises on sakib when he takes NZ apart with the bat. He is here to stay and he is here to do what no other bangladeshi allrounder has done before. He will play the way plays and there is nothing wrong in that because he is successful this way. When he started out lots of people were pointing out his technical flaws, and I stood up for him saying he will succeed with what technique he has, its not a flaw, his technique is unconventional and as with everything unconventional people usually have issues. Deal with it. He is still the person who averages better than most batsmen in the team and is the most consistent batsman.

[smashyboy]

High time fans lower their expectations. Infact in the first he captained better than Sehwag did. Every single captain in the world is flawed one way or the other. At the end of the day captain is as good as the team. Even Dhoni said "it is the mental thing" when India lost 2-4 to Australia from seemingly winning positions. It is no big deal. Don't dissect post match interviews. It is what you do on the field counts. For a 22 year old he is doing a tremendous job. It is the "so called" experienced Ashrafool that has to be gotten rid of by Bangladesh management. Get back Bashar if possible. Not out of desperation. But to inculcate test match temperament into these guys. Athar Ali Khan was able to predict most of the suicidal shots by Bangladesh players. Bowlers can also make school boy mistakes. But they can always come back. But batsmen cannot make school boy mistakes.

[pinch_hitter]

i really dont get it. whats so wrong with 'relaxing and chatting' in the dressing room?? they're in the dressing room for crying out loud. not in the field. people are making it sound like they pulled an andrew symonds on the team. i mean seriously. what were they supposed to do? pad up till the last man to show how focused they are? head to the nets like imrul and zunaid after falling cheaply to show how commited they are? discuss with siddons whether the last ball was a good leave?

cut them some slacks guys. if bd didnt fold so cheaply, if the remaining batsmen contributed reasonably, the same statement from sakib would've been applauded, stating 'way to keep cool before batting, guys'. there's nothing wrong with relaxing when you're not out there. as long as you dont take it with you to the field. and thats exactly what they did. criticise them for that. not for relaxing in the dressing room.

regarding sakib's form, one bad series (the latter part of the series for that matter, not even the entire series), and he's under the microscope. his batting failed. everything else was examplary. regarding his transparency, one press conference after a losing cause, and his honesty and streightforwardness translate to jaat-gelo jaat-gelo. the same attitude after west indies and zimbabwe series, and 'this kid is not kutnoitik like bashar and ashraful'...

seriously.

[bharat]

Originally Posted by smashyboy
High time fans lower their expectations. Infact in the first he captained better than Sehwag did. Every single captain in the world is flawed one way or the other. At the end of the day captain is as good as the team. Even Dhoni said "it is the mental thing" when India lost 2-4 to Australia from seemingly winning positions. It is no big deal. Don't dissect post match interviews. It is what you do on the field counts. For a 22 year old he is doing a tremendous job. It is the "so called" experienced Ashrafool that has to be gotten rid of by Bangladesh management. Get back Bashar if possible. Not out of desperation. But to inculcate test match temperament into these guys. Athar Ali Khan was able to predict most of the suicidal shots by Bangladesh players. Bowlers can also make school boy mistakes. But they can always come back. But batsmen cannot make school boy mistakes.

+1 that !I said this before and I am saying again dropping Bashar (forced retirement of Rafique) was the worst decision BCB could ever take !

[layperson]

Bashar !!!!! Please. Now lets not take the team back 10 yrs. We are heading in the right direction, no need to pull them back 10 yrs.

[cricman]

Bashar is shot, he relied on his reflexes, He's cant hook the ball anymore ... Do You guys see Ricky Ponting and his inevitable down fall with the Hook Shot, only difference between Ponting and Bashar is Ponting Started much earlier

I' am quite certain if Habibul Bashar played Test Cricket in his 20's he would have had a 45+ Average.

This Man Played 99 Innings and Had 27 50+ scores! Amazing If you filter out 2006 on it's even better

[smashyboy]

Originally Posted by layperson
Bashar !!!!! Please. Now lets not take the team back 10 yrs. We are heading in the right direction, no need to pull them back 10 yrs.

Hard to believe that. They used to play ODI type of cricket. Now they are adopting T20 style. If they play this kind of cricket on bowler friendly surface you will see 100 all out more often than not.

[czone]

I heard it before and then heard it again from Lotus Kamal. It is level of commitment, dedication, concentration level of the BD team players. Shakib's statement proves they actually don't belong to this level of cricket. They are too naive and ignorant about the responsibility as the represantatives of the whole nation. But then can we all expect much more from this cricketers, considering their age and educational background? How could these players were so nonchalant during such an important phase of the game. Now Shakib himself verifies how right Lotus Kamal was. After all Mr. Kamal have known BD cricketers for over 20 odd years now ."Sorry Shakib, we all are very ashamed and speechless about you and your teammates attitude. The nation did not deserve this from you guys".

[Eshen]

pinch hitter, there is nothing wrong joking around the dressing room, but it's very wrong when you let that effect you in the field. Shakib came in the field thinking Shahadat got some easy runs, he could also do so by whacking around Indian bowlers. That was immense disrespect to both Shahadat and Indian bowlers. You can't afford to have this kind of attitude in international sports.

[arsenalsri]

Originally Posted by Beamer
I didn't understand that part as well. What kind of situation was he talking about? The situation was good. We were in a great situation. Close to 300 for 3! Are you kidding me? If we are not mentally strong enough to deal with that situation, with that flat pitch, with the meat of the order to follow, I shudder to think what we will do in tougher situations! ahh..actually no point trying to dissect their quotes. None of them are students of cricket. Its hard to feel them words for words.

Precisely. How often has Bangladesh Cricket or Shakib found themselves in that situation where they are able to say - Hang on a minute, we actually might be able to take a lead here and make the opposition sweat. It is the mental thing, not knowing what to do in a situation that you don't find yourself in very often. You suddenly start thinking too much ahead of yourself. Shakib probably thought, Wow batting is easy out there, let's pile up some quick runs and make India bat as soon as possible so we have the chance to take 10 wickets or whatever remaining due to injury. That probably was what led to the downfall.

There is nothing wrong in being honest as a capatain, Dhoni is brutal most of the times whe he assesses India's performance after a loss but also gives credit where it is due. Shakib will learn in time, he will grow into the captaincy. Changing captaincy every other series is not goin to take Bangladesh / nor the individual forward. You will then reach a point like Pakistan where soon there will be 10 ex-captains playing under a current captain.

[fais]

i am sick and tired of being "an improving side" - what freaking improvement - 22 runs for 7 wickets

[Naimul_Hd]

Originally Posted by arsenalsri
There is nothing wrong in being honest as a capatain, Dhoni is brutal most of the times whe he assesses India's performance after a loss but also gives credit where it is due. Shakib will learn in time, he will grow into the captaincy. Changing captaincy every other series is not goin to take Bangladesh / nor the individual forward. You will then reach a point like Pakistan where soon there will be 10 ex-captains playing under a current captain.

hope you are right !

[Tintin]

Originally Posted by cricman
Bashar is shot, he relied on his reflexes, He's cant hook the ball anymore ... Do You guys see Ricky Ponting and his inevitable down fall with the Hook Shot, only difference between Ponting and Bashar is Ponting Started much earlier

I' am quite certain if Habibul Bashar played Test Cricket in his 20's he would have had a 45+ Average.

This Man Played 99 Innings and Had 27 50+ scores! Amazing If you filter out 2006 on it's even better

Yeah. Quite a few were discarded while still in their twenties as "too old" but in Bashar's case he was clearly past his best.

[Tintin]

Originally Posted by fais
i am sick and tired of being "an improving side" - what freaking improvement - 22 runs for 7 wickets

What about 290 for 3 ? How often has Bangladesh reached that score against big teams ?

[Roni_uk]

Oh no.. now we have two 'fool's in the team- Ashrafool & Shakifool

[Shubho]

Everyone, relax. Breathe in. Count to five. Now breathe out.

Let's not jump to conclusions about what led to the batting collapse on Day 4. Yes, it was gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, annoying, infuriating and sad all at the same time, but it will take several more days of calmness and introspection to find out what truly happened.

Once that is done, we can work towards correcting whatever flaws led to this batting collapse. In the meantime, let's not play the blame game.

Let's look forward to New Zealand and see if these boys have learned some mental toughness from the series that was.

[BD-Shardul]

Aftabesqe symptom . Hope boys will reflect and regroup.

[dark mage]

Shakib just proved that Lotus Kamal's comment about the cricketers were spot on

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by Shubho
Yes, it was gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, annoying, infuriating and sad all at the same time

Surprisingly, I don't feel any of that. Well OK I'm disappointed, but I guess having followed Bangladesh cricket for so long, I've come to expect these things. There's no excuse for the way we folded on day 4 and I must admit I had expected us to get a lead of 100 runs and still lose by 10 wickets, the first part of which didn't happen. But Shakib definitely seems to have enough strength to dig out of this situation and improve further - one series does not define a man.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to more and more FC matches (kudos to the BCB on cutting the number of games in the NCL down - what geniuses), especially for a team of poor learners such as ours.

[akabir77]

Originally Posted by Neel Here
graeme smith became captain at the same age.

yeah but his father probably played cricket but skaib is the 1st one in his family to do so hence the lack of many things... and thats why they r apple and orange...

[fais]

Originally Posted by Tintin
What about 290 for 3 ? How often has Bangladesh reached that score against big teams ?

290 for 3 means jack all if we end up with 312 all out!