Mohsin Kamal - A Biased Update

[Shubho]

We are fast approaching the end of the year, and as I predicted in a previous posting on this board, I shall stick to my guns and give this coaching novice another three months at the helm of Bangladeshi cricket.

I said it then, and I say it now, Subcontinental coaches should be out of the question for Bangladesh. They lack the professionalism. They are out to make a quick buck. And history has proven that Bangladeshis have fallen for the Pakistani/Indian trap too many times. Think of Miandad, think especially of Mohinder Amarnath.

What are Mohsin Kamal's credentials anyway? As a player he was all right, so-so, middle-of-the-road, nothing special, a utility player. And his credentials as a coach are virtually non-existent, and whatever experience he does have certainly does not merit being appointed manager of a test-playing country. For goodness sake, I am certain the likes of Namibia, Holland, the UAE would think twice about employing this fellow.

But such is life, I suppose. Following the departure of Saber Hossain Chowdhury, we have been witness to a whole host of incompetent decisions made by incompetent people, and no-one more so than Ali Asghar (or Asghar Ali), not that anybody cares to know his name, anyway. On what basis did he choose this Mohsin Kamal guy anyway? On the advice of people like Wasim Akram. A truly rigorous selection process for one of the most important jobs in Bangladeshi cricket.

Even if we choose not to contest the selection of Mohsin Kamal as coach, there are plenty of complaints about his tenure so far already. I will only touch on one. At each and every press briefing he has entertained, he has repeated one statement (and only one statement) over and over again with mind-bogglingly endless monotony: the talent is there, but the players need to develop a positive attitude. If that is his analysis of the current state of affairs of BD cricket, he needs a serious reality check. Any cricketing novice will know that mental toughness is only have the story. As the latest outing in Sri Lanka showed, we lack the talent/skill in several departments of the game, most (if not all) batsmen were completely exposed when it came to shot selection, the bowlers are completely wayward, and so on and so forth.

We are all aware that the talent exists. But improving mental strength will not necessarily prevent us from being skittled out for 77 runs, especially if batsmen don't have the foggiest idea about batting to a pace attack.

So, rather than waiting until frustrations boil over, I think the BCB ought to do the only right thing under the circumstances, force the exit of Mohsin Kamal, and splash out on the following resources for our national team:

- A coach of international repute
- A good physio (unlike Gavin Benjafield)
- Batting clinics/workshops led by international greats (such as Gordon Greenidge)
- Bowling clinics/workshops
- Fielding clinics
- Contracting cricket analysts, who will sit with the team during every match, collate statistics for each player, and thereby work out the weakness and strengths of each player

But who listens to us anyway?