The Way Forward from Here
First lets be honest, we're simply not good enough. A month ago, I thought we were more or less on par with Sri Lanka at full strength with Sanga, Mahela, Dilly, and Malinga. While I think SL are over-achieving right now and we're grossly under-achieving, I think the reality is that even WI and NZ are still a notch above us. A year ago, things were different, but we've gone backwards in the past few months.
We must accept that apart from the home series wins against the likes of WI and NZ, and the regular, but still not consistent wins against others at home, we're not gonna be much better than we are right now. Which means we will still lose to Associates. We will probably lose every away series in ZIM. If we accept this, only then can we aim to overcome it and become truly better.
BCB top brass will still remain corrupt and immovable. The BCL and NCL will continue to be marginalized to accomodate the DPL or some retarded T20 tournament under the guise of preparing for the World T20 tournament. Domestic fixtures will remain haphazard with Barisal and Khulna playing a match in Sylhet, and the starting and ending dates of tournaments not being known until the week before. Semi-finalist teams will complain that they didn't know the full rules on qualification to the finals or that the league changed the rules after the game.
Pappon will continue to lead us to God knows where. But I guess if he can secure fixtures against the top 3 he will have done about as well as we can expect anyone to do.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury will remain on the sidelines.
The only real changes will only be made from the HC on down. SJ may or may not stick around, he may or may not get fired. So what should we do?
First off, we need to weed out the deadweights in the team. Players who suck should be discarded regardless of how good their work ethic is. Similarly players who are "too good" to be replaced must be persisted with until better players with better work ethic are found. In other words, Tamim lives another day to scarf down biryani. Players must be held accountable, and the best way to do that is financially. Players should be fined for not performing to expectation at the end of each year. If they don't like it, they can go and play IPL if they can get themselves auctioned.
We need to have specialist teams for all 3 formats, and it might be difficult to find a team for T20s, but for Tests and ODIs, we should not have ill suited players playing. That means no Razzak for Tests. Play Taijul, if he doesn't work out, play Saqlain, if he doesn't fit, try Noor, if again no, then play Enamul, if no, then try Jubair. Rinse and repeat. Same thing with Rubel, try Taskin instead. I don't want to hear all this "grooming" bullshit. We're not trying to make a team of metrosexuals that we need everyone groomed. If the guy is fit, put him in. Give everyone a decent run, and if they don't work, move onto the next one. Don't keep recycling the same tired bums.
A note on Mushy's captaincy. While its not great, its not terrible either. For those who want Mushy to attack more in Tests and ODIs - and yes, I've been one of those in the past - we have to remember our bowlers suck. Mushy has even said once before that because our Rubels and Shahadats and Razzaks like to give one boundary ball per over, whilst never creating chances, he has to put fielders on the fence for damage control. Mushy has a masters degree, and so he isn't just another Ashraful idiot who can't understand basic game strategy. He either has his hands tied or has them cuffed behind his back by poor bowlers.
Case in point, in today's match vs AFG, Nabi employed the same field Mushy did. Have most of your men in the ring even outside the PP overs. It worked for us till the 39th over. It worked for AFG the whole game and they won. So why did it work for them and not us? Same fields, same level of captaincy. Thats because AFG bowlers bowled well and were more threatening than our bowlers. It wasn't the field that let AFG off the hook, it was the shitty bowling. And Mushy can't do anything about that.
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