Need a temporary captain

[fwullah]

Today's papers have reported that the board is thinking about having an operation on Habibul Bashar's finger so that he can be fully fit for the 4 home series starting from against New Zealand this October.

If Bashar is operated on, then he will surely miss the ICC Champions Trophy.

In view of this recent report, I think we need to look for a temporary captain just to lead the side in the 2 ODIs in the Champions Trophy and the practice matches before that.

Normally, the vice captain gets the job to do the captain if the captain is injured or is unable to lead the side for some reason. Rajin Saleh was our vice captain for a few tournaments and series. So does he get the job?

In my opinion, Rajin is far too young even to do a temporary job, besides his recent batting form was not so great in the Asia Cup. Usually, the issue of the vice captain is not taken as seriously because the role of vice captain is not so huge, generally speaking.

However, the current situation (of Bangladesh) requires that we need an experienced guy to lead the side, as there is the matter of pride in it - we seriously do not want to lose to Scotland and Ireland and USA just because of an inexperienced and a young captain.

My suggestion is to appoint Khaled Mahmud as the captain - just for the coming One Day matches. He was the captain recently, and the biggest issue is that he was not handed a resignation to his captaincy because of his poor job as the captain or because of his performance as the captain (particularly) in the ODIs.

In fact, there was a huge debate before Habibul Bashar's appointing captaincy that Khaled Mahmud be the ODI captain and Habibul Bashar to be the Test captain. But since appointing 2 captains for the 2 forms of the game is a complicated issue, so it was not put into practice.

And its not like that Khaled Mahmud is going to be dropped or that his performance is going down very recently - he is still a valuable member of the BD ODI side as he was during his captaincy tenure. However, in arguing for him, I am totally ignoring the issue of how he was treated by his team mates after the England tour and before the Zimbabwe - at a point of time where he was not announced to be not the captain anymore.

The only other choice that I see to be the perfect candidate for being the temporary captain of the side is Javed Omar. Because surely, Khaled Mashud is not going to be handed over the captaincy, not after the way he was forced to resign.

[Beamer]

Please...this guy is lucky enough to be in the team. Capatin now? thats ridiculous. If shumon can't go, Rajin becomes the captain. If thats what they had in mind about rajin, to take over captaincy one day, by making him the vice-capatin, then he should step up and do it. Would add valuable experience. Khaled mahmud shouldn't even be in the team.

[PoorFan]

I support 100% for Khaled Mashud as captain.
I don't care how and why he was forced to resign.
If the officials made the mistake last time, then it's a golden time to fix it.
I think the officials attitude is different then that time, and will think about the best.
Javed could be the second choice, I am happy with him too.

[Zobair]

If Khaled Mahmud becomes the temporary captain then we can rest assured tat he won't be dropped anytime soon! How can you just drop the recent captain? Besides that would also mean he would have to play every match in the Champion's trophy as well as the warm up matches!!!! DO you really want to cancel that option (of benching him here and there)?!

[fwullah]

Please...this guy is lucky enough to be in the team. Capatin now? thats ridiculous. If shumon can't go, Rajin becomes the captain. If thats what they had in mind about rajin, to take over captaincy one day, by making him the vice-capatin, then he should step up and do it. Would add valuable experience. Khaled mahmud shouldn't even be in the team.

Alright, alright I admit there was a die hard fan of Sujon (me) talking on there in the original new post.

But to be honest, with Sumon out of the team even temporarily, will a loss in Ireland and Scotland do any good to a new and emerging young captain like Rajin Saleh?

[Rubu]

i'd go for either rafique or pilot. my first choice would be rafique and second pilot.

[fwullah]

If Rajin does get the captaincy, will he be the youngest captain of Bangladesh in One Day Internationals? (Rajin is 21 years old now)

[vv_sunil]

khaled mashud is the best choice

javed omar is the next choice

khaled mahmud - no choice

[nihi]

Originally posted by fwullah
If Rajin does get the captaincy, will he be the youngest captain of Bangladesh in One Day Internationals? (Rajin is 21 years old now)

What's the big problem with that?

[fwullah]

My reason behind chosing Sujon was that Sujon has the experience, the players WERE used to him as the captain, and Sujon will also not be playing 5 long years (in fact, he's on the verge of getting retirement), so there is going to be "NO CONFLICT" if Sujon is given a temporary job. Because when Bashar is fit, he's going to be the captain, no matter what (even by any chance if Sujon manages to lead the team to victory in all the matches, including South Africa and West Indies) - because Sujon will not get into the test side - no chance there.

In my opinion, captaincy issue is a very delicate thing at the moment, and giving the temporary job to anyone else could rise a conflict in the team. But since Sujon is not even a candidate for the test team selection, so he'll know, as well as every other national player that Sujon will not become a permanent captain or replace Sumon as the captain even if he's given the temporary job.

But since most of you disagree, so what other choice do we have, that won't rise any sort of contradiction.

[fwullah]

Wasn't Akram Khan the youngest captain ever (so far) at the age of 24/25?

[fwullah]

Have you thought about this that if Rajin gets the captaincy, and performs reasonably well as the captain, then he could get the captaincy for the world cup 2007, as well? Considering Habibul Bashar's performance, it is a possibility.

P.S. I do not entertain the idea of watching such a young and inexperienced captain in the world cup.

[nihi]

Originally posted by fwullah

In my opinion, captaincy issue is a very delicate thing at the moment, and giving the temporary job to anyone else could rise a conflict in the team.

Since vice captain gets the captaincy by default, there is no question of conflict at all. I see you have points for Sujon, but as far as conflict is concerned, handing over Sujon the captaincy may rather inflict more conflict. As for youngest ODI captains, Tatenda Taibu (captaincy at 20) and Graem Smith(captaincy at 22) are the two youngest ODI captains. And I don't know why we always have to have some evidence in front of us to take a decision.

Digressing a little bit, among the first 14 youngest test players, Pakistan have 9 and Bangladesh have 4.

BTW, nice to see your new signature, fwullah.

[nihi]

Originally posted by fwullah
Have you thought about this that if Rajin gets the captaincy, and performs reasonably well as the captain, then he could get the captaincy for the world cup 2007, as well? Considering Habibul Bashar's performance, it is a possibility.

P.S. I do not entertain the idea of watching such a young and inexperienced captain in the world cup.

I am not sure whether you're being satiric or not. If Rajin plays that well and continues the form until 2007, why it would be such a matter of headache to have a successful 24 years old captain? Especially when Bashar is not getting any younger every year (ou must have noticed his considerably receding hairline).

[Upal]

As long as Rajin is the vice-captain, its a given that he will be promoted to the captaincy in the event Bashar is not available due to injury. It doesn't matter what his age is...the selectors fully knew of his age when they appointed him vice-captain.

Furthermore, age is not a big deal anyway. Ronnie Sarwan has been captain a few times, most recently against BD, when Lara was out due to injury. Sarwan's only 22 i think. Moreover, Graeme Smith and Tatenda Taibu are both captains in their low 20s.

[fwullah]

Since vice captain gets the captaincy by default, there is no question of conflict at all. I see you have points for Sujon, but as far as conflict is concerned, handing over Sujon the captaincy may rather inflict more conflict. As for youngest ODI captains, Tatenda Taibu (captaincy at 20) and Graem Smith(captaincy at 22) are the two youngest ODI captains. And

Well, the problem is that neither Tatenda Taibu nor Graem Smith are successful captains, not as successful as the Zimbabwe or the South Africa team can be.

And we need to be more successful than we usually are. For the moment, for this Champions Trophy, we need to have success - possibly Bashar's injury has stopped us from dreaming of an upset win over West Indies, if not an upset win over South Africa.

However, I do agree that when we were including the huge number of younger players into the team, it is now or later that we're gonna have to face with a younger captain whether we like it or not.

Its just that Rajin becoming the captain - it'll be a few more experiments (forced experimenting - have no choice, if you ask me) in all the experimentings that we have been doing so far.

[rafiq]

FW being a huge fan of Sujon is an amazing disclosure. I wouldn't have guessed it. I don't know what is up with Bashar's little pinky (he seems to be one of the cry babies just from listening to his crying in the papers about how much his finger hurts - just tape it up and play for God's sake), but changing the captain is the last thing this team needs. And having a discussion about whether Sujon should be captain is perhaps the worst way to waste time on this board, and lately there have been many. If it is temporary, and the VC is going to play anyway (which he is), then there is no need to look elsewhere. His age has nothing to do with it.

[rafiq]

As a parallel discussion, and to extract some usefulness from this thread, I have to ask US voters on this board who voted Republican last time because they were told to by the Islamic think tank: do you really want Dick Cheney as your President if something were to happen to Bush (who could fall over an open drilling well hole in Texas and break a finger, too)? In other words, think ahead before you make these appointments, which hopefully the BCB selectors did and we American voters will do this November. Sorry for the unsolicited political opinion.

[billah]

In any case, Bashar's exclusion should be good for an ODI tournament. Mashud, the only reliable player of our team, should be the natural next choice. He can be aided by the manager and others, besides, I'm sure he has learned from his past mistakes. Mahmud should also assist him, although, I don't know why he is still in the team.

[AsifTheManRahman]

I think they'lle give it to Rajin Saleh. However, what difference would a new captain be able to make to this useless bunch of players, jekhane whatmorer moto coach e pare na?

[James90]

It's just 2 matches so try Rajin out

[IanW]

Apart from the fact that Khaled Mahmud can't bat, bowl or field, and that he apparently lacks the respect of his team-mates and the support of his coach, he'd be an excellent choice.

Ian Whitchurch

PS Yes, I am being satirical. Mahmud would be an awful, backward-looking choice. Take the best remaining batsman, and make him captain.

[chinaman]

Our team has been playing professionally but as fans, we are still amateurs, at least in some of our thinking.

What in the mother earth makes us to invent issues like "conflict" and "young"? I know Fahmida had more insight knowledges than I do, but I'm not sure of Bashar's odd to miss the ICC Champions Trophy in the first place.

Even if he were to miss, we have a VC in Rajin who was given the post after carefully considering many things by the selectors. If I remember correctly, he was the captain of our A team against England last year. He was the captain of his team in the CCL league. Above all, every one, including Mahmud, Masud and Rafique, knows and so far learnt to live with this official recognition.

What the big deal if Rajin captains the team, as per protocol? What makes you to be so sure of Sujon's place in the playing eleven?

Sujon made his contributions to the best of his ability and we all are thankful to him. If he is called upon, I'm sure he'll do his best to take many runs and wickets and will play professionally under any captain. If he can learn to live with that, I think its about time for his 'die hard' fans to dwell with that too.

This thread is a sober reminder of our own general thinking process, to invent issues where there is none, to find a way to justify the unjustifiable. But that's ok I guess. What bothers me most is the fact that, just like our own players, we have not improved much as fans. They practice hard, we participate hard. Very ocassionally they manage to shine, so do we, like in the Cordy thread, but basically, we are stuck within a small radius.

[oracle]

I know that Pilot is the reasonable choice but these "practice" matches should be used for experimenting if there is an urge on the part of the selectors. Since we have a vice captain I don't mind getting Rajin's feet dirty and handing some new responsibilities. It might do him some good. As for the ICC, please let Pilot do the job. If it is atoss between him and Sujon, it shouuld go to the better performer. Always better performance should be acknowledged, whatever the history.
I for one am open to the idea of having captains based on performance and for that matter the best 11.

Edited on, August 19, 2004, 12:51 PM GMT, by oracle.

[Ibrahim]

I completely agree with Chinaman. “The temporary captaincy” issue got 22 respond so far, but at this moment it is not a positive issue for BD cricket. There is a designated vice-captain, then why we need a temporary captain!!!