We Bangladeshies must learn to believe in ourselves

[crazyisland]

It seems like our culture is to be negative and we are always suffering from some kind of inferiority complex. For some reason we think like our backbone are made out of plastic. We just can't think of ourselves as winner. You don't have to be a genius to figure that out. Even in this board I see few who are confident and optimistic but most are very pessimistic. And that's how the Bangladesh's cricket players are as well. Some of them are real fighters and they have high expectations but most of them are happy with so little. Just read the article from The Daily Star below. You can see the difference between the mentality of our captain and coach who is an Australian.

BCB President's Eleven captain Hannan Sarker was happy to earn a draw in the three-day practice match against England yesterday.
"I think we showed real character in the second innings. That was a plus point after our first innings failure. But we still could have played better," said the national opener while talking to reporters after the match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
England came within one wicket of winning the first of the two practice matches ahead of the first Test starting on October 21.
Hannan said that their aim was to draw the match against the formidable England side and he had no complaints after achieving the target. ...

... Australian Richard McInnes, who is preparing the youth team for the next year's ICC Under-19 World Cup, thought that his first competitive match was a mixed bag.
"We bowled okay. I was happy to bowl England out inside three days. But our batting let us down with some pretty poor shot selection in both innings," said McInnes.
The Australian also said that a draw never makes him happy.
"I'm not very happy with this draw. My philosophy is always win," said the under-19 coach who took over earlier this month.
"We need to change our mental approach and go for wins," he said adding that there would not be any surprises for the visitors at BKSP when they face Bangladesh A in the next three-day match starting tomorrow.

From www.thedailystar.net
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Hannan Sarkar said - "I think we showed real character in the second innings. That was a plus point after our first innings failure. But we still could have played better,"

What is he talking about? We made less then 60 in first innings and almost lost all wickets even before making 200. Is this our real character??

The point I am trying to make is until we are confident enough and set our goal high enough we won't get what we expect. If moon is the target then we need to aim for the star. For our case we aim for the tallest building in Dhaka but like to reach the moon.

[rafiq]

pagol island bhai:

I agree with your observations. Getting positive results out of a group of Bangladeshis is an enormous challenge in any area, not just cricket. The lack of self-confidence is only one aspect.

Unfortunately there are several other even more vicious traits that get in the way. One is jealousy over someone else's successes. Then how about the one where people are lazy, hate to do anything positive, but try their best to pull down anyone else who is putting forth an effort. An example from growing up in Dhaka. We had an American guy who rented a house across from us in Dhaka. Well, people would dump trash in the streets or the adjacent lake instead of bothering to walk down to the garbage dump halfway down the block. So this American took it upon himself to put on a lungi, get a kodal and go dig up some trash that was blocking access to the lake. Instead of helping him (or sending their numerous servants to his aid), the learned and educated people in the block would only laugh and in fact throw more trash later on. I left for college, so am not sure who eventually won the battle but my guess is he didn't.

Another is an infinite amount of mattobori - "I know best" attitude, which makes it hard to take anyone else's opinions, feedback etc. The cricket team seems to be doing well in this regard after Whatmore arrived, but I can imagine many players will struggle when coaches tell thim to change this or that esp. if they are "senior bhais".

One more from society at large that can affect the cricket team. The cricket players are only so many and now have had success and are adored by all. This can really get to their heads and from time to time we see arrogance which leads to bad habits, loss of form, poor performance, etc. I find similar examples in society where only so many people (unfortunately such a small percentage in absolute terms) have a house in Gulshan, an industry obtained via legal/illegal means, an American education at a top school, a kid in one of those fancy schools in Dhaka or Chittagong, a Humvee or whatever the status symbols, I name only a few.

Ever heard of the big-headed Bangali making much ado over nothing? My favorite story was the lady in Dhaka who asked me one summer day where I worked in the US. It turns out her daughter and I both worked for a v. large well known international firm. We had two offices in Washington DC, one in the city and one across the river in Virginia. I had recently moved within the company and thus moved offices from the downtown location to the across-the-river Virginia location. "Hmmm" she concluded, "well my daughter works in the downtown office, she never mentioned there is another office in DC" - satisfied that somehow her child had done "better" due to this prestigous downtown Washington DC workplace.

Pagol island bhai, amra shobai pagol and we all live on our own little islands. I guess you were only talking about self-confidence when it comes to cricket, but I couldn't help but comment that we could achieve a whole lot more not only with more confidence but also with more common purpose and humility.

I salute you for making your point!

[crazyisland]

The Lady in Dhaka story was really funny.

[Pundit]

Excellent narration, Mr. Rafiq !The truth could not have been any more nearer.

And unfortunately, it does not end their. Those of us who live abroad and are only too well aware of our inadequecies, still continue to lead such habits when within our own, or when visiting BD. I guess we never learn...though some do, and even fewer never need to.

[rafiq]

eactly my point, pundit miahbhai, I'm glad you agree!

[Orpheus]

Bangaless ARE improving.. Joy Bangla!

Nice post rafiq

[Edited on 15-10-2003 by Orpheus]

[BangladeshCricket]

yea agree with Rafiq and also agree with you all.....woow we agreeing lolz...we agree but still there are disagreements...but all we have to do his respect each other concerns and then give a thoughtful effective way to solve problems as whole. Hope like us our team discusses the issues and also take their decisions respecting each other ideas and techniques rather just trying to "beat each other" for self satisfaction. I hope we all under our coach think positive and try hard to improve...It worked so far this continues to last...

[Tehsin]

About bangalees. It's funny and tragic.

I gave up telling people about my site. I guess if I told them it was run by a Gora (Brit, Aussie or American), they would have atleast looked up the site to see what it is all about. Surprisingly, the response is better from Indians and Pakistanis.

Another thing is - arrogance and ignorance run amock among some of my bangladeshi nationals.

However, I am lucky to find out people like Rajputro, Sham and the like. Lucky to have all of you come to the board. That keeps us going.

[chinaman]

On a different note, I didn't find anything negative about Hannan's comment. Unfortunately his portrayal of our character is nothing short of reality. Shooting the moon or the lady of Dhaka aside, we do play sleep and awake with that wooden bat to reinvent our character every now and then. After the crumbled 1st innings, "even my dad" knew winning was a far cry and only a determined 2nd innings might take them ashore. And that was exactly what they did. Hannan himself survived more than 17 of 66 overs alone never mind the score. Aftab's roaring was only the tip of the iceberg for what lies ahead in him. Even Enamul's survival of the last two balls was no less heroic. We did sleep and awake before and we do sleep and awake now, only now we seems to awake early on.