DS: Academy to bridge the gap

TheWatcher · #1 July 17, 2006, 01:50 PM

It had been told over and over again that Bangladesh cricket has a lack of back-up players for the national side. And there is hardly any planning for the Bangladesh A team to make it a real supporting block for the senior side.

Another issue that also has been discussed time and again is the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) lack of planning to help out-of-favour recover form at all levels.

To solve these very urgent problems, BCB, however has taken an initiative recently. The game's governing body in the country has formed an Academy under its name on temporary basis and the authority is dreaming to give it a real shape within short time.

In its first step, BCB has recently appointed former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud as its operations manager and the former all-rounder was very excited and optimistic with the new venture.

"I think the board has taken a very important initiative which will definitely play a big part in Bangladesh cricket in future. I have seen how out-of-favour but talented players drifted away from the scene after being dropped from the national or under-19 sides. I think the Academy could be a solution to keep them in track," said Mahmud.

"The concept is that we can make a bridge between the senior and junior teams with the academy side. As per our plan a number of selected players will continue their practice and get necessary opinions from experts during their long stint in the academy. I think it will also open a window for the locals coaches," he added.

BCB has already announced a 27-member academy squad with a mix of discarded national and young players who has been practising together and played three matches against the national side.

"BCB has recently set up an office to run the show and rented a house for the players in Dhan-mondi area. The most encouraging thing is that the board is not worried about expenses to run the show. We have a plan to tour Pakistan in August to play some matches against the Pakistan Academy team and the board is also negotiating with its Sri Lankan counterparts. So I see a big prospect with the Academy," Mahmud hoped.

BCB Development Committee chairman Jamiluddin Khondokar, however, was very much aware of the fact that they should transform the temporary idea into a permanent one.

"We have been searching for a land in the Mirpur area to establish the academy. We need a permanent establishment to make it successful. The board has a plan to make it an academy like in Pakistan or Australia," said Jamil.

"I think money is not a big problem right at the moment for the board. I don't know why BRAC backed away from sponsoring the academy but I have learnt that GrameenPhone has showed interest to be involved with the project," he informed.

Jamil also said that some major decisions about the academy will be taken in the next working committee meeting on July 23.

Original Report

sadi · #2 July 17, 2006, 01:55 PM

great move... couple of reasons:

1. The appointment of chacha as the manager. I am sure he is on his way to be the manager for the national team in near future but thats definately a start.

2. To tour other countries. That will expose our young players to different conditions and it will definately work as a bridge between our super under-19 team and average national team.

SS · #3 July 17, 2006, 02:22 PM

a great move to bring back AlShahriar or Musfiq Babu. Not sure if chacha will choose Rana or Tapash, Nazmul.
Reducing the gap of rejected players not sure how good it will do to us. Are they noticing we have a big problem in pace department. Our A-team bowling looked so ordinary in recent matches.Also our weaknesses of top orders' with new balls and even in spins!

Duck · #4 July 17, 2006, 02:25 PM

Good initiative. No doubt....

1. However, to instill the Majeja of Longer Version of the cricket, we really need to make the Domestic/National League (3/4dayers) very competitive and standard, not only in playing good crickets but also in developing the infrastructures like the good sporting pitch and field, players salary, coaching etc.

2. As we have discussed in defferent levels of BC forums: selecting the young players for national Caps earlier then they are really prepared for (many of the cases), is nothing but ruining their career. Eventually, most of them are discarded out of favor forever. It is better nurture them 1st in different level and then expose in real world.

3. Sometimes, it feels like our selectors should go to an Academy where they will learn how to select a player and not spoil the talents.

sadi · #5 July 17, 2006, 03:13 PM

I just hope its the right time to bring Sakib or Forhad to the national team. We saw the selectors messing it up so many times before when they called someone before they were ready. I understand its the best time to experient as we are taking on two teams that are a little below standard. But is it still too early for these two cubs?

MarufH · #6 July 18, 2006, 12:15 AM

Saqib said he personally wasn't expecting the call!!! He is really surprised...

kalpurush · #7 July 18, 2006, 01:04 AM

Appointing Khaled Mahmud as Operations Manager is a very good decision taken by BCB. He is a great motivator and hard working person. All the best.

cricket_dorshok · #8 July 18, 2006, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadi
I just hope its the right time to bring Sakib or Forhad to the national team. We saw the selectors messing it up so many times before when they called someone before they were ready. I understand its the best time to experient as we are taking on two teams that are a little below standard. But is it still too early for these two cubs?

yes, i think its early to call them in national side. both of them were suprised on getting call in the national side. IMO, they should play another 2 years in the A team. Not only Faruk and Co. but also a lot of BC members wanted them in national side. Personally, I think they didn't do anything special in A team so that they can get a call. performance in U-19 should not be criteria in getting selected in national side. rather there should be consistent performance in all level (U-19, A etc.) before national side.

Rabz · #9 July 18, 2006, 02:22 AM

good plan by CB,but we would still have to wait and see how they execute the plans.
Cuz our BD admininstrators are always big in words, let see how they rake up against it.

mac · #10 July 18, 2006, 04:08 AM

Good move, no doubt. But there is little difference between High Performance Squad and this Academy team.

TheWatcher · #11 July 25, 2006, 12:44 PM

BCCB National Academy Squad 2006

1. Nazmus Sadat
2. Golam Rahman Himel
3. Tamim Iqbal
4. Shakib Al Hasan
5. Zahirul Islam
6. Uttam Sarkar
7. Mehrab Hossain jnr
8. Marshall Ayub
9. Nadif Chowdhury
10. Sagir Hossain Pavel
11. Israq Sonnet
12. Mushfiqur Rahim
13. Mahmudullah Ryad
14. Musharaff Rubel
15. Sohrawardi Shuvo
16. Farhad Reza
17. Sirajullah Khadem Nipu
18. Arif Hossain
19. Rezaul Islam
20. Ziaur Rahman
21. Shafaq Al Zabir
22. Mahbubul Alam Robin
23. Dollar Mahmud
24. Humayun Kabir Shaheen
25. Sajidul Islam
26. Nazmul Hossain
27. Kamrul Islam

-TigerCricket

*Wondering what happened to Talha Jubair.

Fazal · #12 July 25, 2006, 12:56 PM

Is this the same Nazmul Hossain? But why?

SS · #13 July 25, 2006, 02:23 PM

i wonder creating the academy will rely on political power. When will it start nobodoy knows. Who knows what will happen to it if political power changes. I am tired of PROMISES.
no hope till we destroy these false promises by our big mouth politicians and officials. No hope till we see a real academy functioning for specific period of time, especially disregarding political changes of our two favorite parties.

Rabz · #14 July 26, 2006, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SS
i wonder creating the academy will rely on political power. When will it start nobodoy knows. Who knows what will happen to it if political power changes. I am tired of PROMISES.
no hope till we destroy these false promises by our big mouth politicians and officials. No hope till we see a real academy functioning for specific period of time, especially disregarding political changes of our two favorite parties.

very well said my freind

HereWeGo · #15 July 26, 2006, 04:12 AM

Some other players i would love to see there are
Al Shahriar, Waseluddin, Ehsanul haque, Biddyut( if still playing), Taposh, sharif and talha zubair

*AsifTheManRahman* · #16 July 26, 2006, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HereWeGo
Some other players i would love to see there are
Al Shahriar, Waseluddin, Ehsanul haque, Biddyut( if still playing), Taposh, sharif and talha zubair

lol. i don't think the academy's open to buira beta's. as for sharif and zubair, they never had any hope anyways

TheWatcher · #17 July 27, 2006, 07:19 PM

I wonder what happened to Shamsur Rahman, Nabil Samad, and Yasin Arafat.

TheWatcher · #18 July 30, 2006, 03:44 PM

Tour Of Pakistan
BCB announces Academy team
Sports Reporter

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday announced a 14-member National Cricket Academy squad for next month's Pakistan tour.

Mehrab Hossain has been rewarded for his recent impressive performance with the Bangladesh A team as the left-hander was named captain for the trip.

The Academy side, which is scheduled to leave for Pakistan on August 15, will play two four-day and three one-day matches against their Pakistan counterparts during the tour.

Former national skipper Khaled Mahmud will accompany the team as manager operations while Australian Allister de Winter the coach.

SQUAD
Mehrab Hossain (captain), Nazmus Sadat, Zahirul Islam, Uttam Sarker, Marshall Ayub, Nadif Chowdhury, Sahagir Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyadh, Musharraf Rubel, Suhrawardy Shuvo, Ziaur Rahman, Shafaq Al Jabir, Dollar Mahmud and Nazmul Hossain.

Original Report

TheWatcher · #19 July 30, 2006, 03:53 PM

Bit surprised to see Tamim has been left out. Also, I hoped to see an offie (Rezaul Islam or Yasin Arafat) would be groomed in this tour. Instead of that, they have kept packing the team with SLA's (Nadif, Musharraf, and Suhrawardy).

HawkEye000 · #20 July 30, 2006, 04:41 PM

I dont know what is wrong with the selectors, there should be no reason why they should exclude Tamim. He is one of the few Bangladesh players with a first class average of over 50 and in this season his record is phenomenal in the NCL (469 runs at an average of 78.16). He also did okay in the matches that the academy team played against the national team.

HawkEye000 · #21 July 30, 2006, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWatcher
Bit surprised to see Tamim has been left out. Also, I hoped to see an offie (Rezaul Islam or Yasin Arafat) would be groomed in this tour. Instead of that, they have kept packing the team with SLA's (Nadif, Musharraf, and Suhrawardy).

The relative lack of success of the offies in our domestic cricket is one of the reason why the selectors tend not to pick them. But the situation is soon gonna change. The main reason why the left arm spinners had so much success in the domestic cricket of Bnagladesh was that predominantly most batsmen were right handers. But with the advent of so many left handed batsmen in our domestic cricket, offies would tend to have some success from now on.

TheWatcher · #22 July 30, 2006, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HawkEye000
The relative lack of success of the offies in our domestic cricket is one of the reason why the selectors tend not to pick them.

Funny thing is that what you said is not the case here- Yasin Arafat was the most successful spinner (50 wickets) in the last NCL, and Rezaul Islam took four wickets in the last practice match against Bangladesh national team.

As far I remember Pakistan U/19 team had few good left hand bats. So, I think there were plenty of reasons to pick one of those two offies.

sadi · #23 July 30, 2006, 07:11 PM

totally agree with the watcher... they should've picked yasin instead of rubel.... i heard nadif is one of the best talent out there.... biddut played with him last year in corporate league and was really excited about this young guy... looking forward to see him in action in pakistan

HawkEye000 · #24 July 30, 2006, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWatcher
Funny thing is that what you said is not the case here- Yasin Arafat was the most successful spinner (50 wickets) in the last NCL, and Rezaul Islam took four wickets in the last practice match against Bangladesh national team.

Just looking at the sheer number of wickets taken may sometimes mislead us. If you look at strike rate of some the spinners going around in domestic cricket, you can see the difference.

Look at the strike rates of the following spinner in FC cricket.

Shuvo (SLA) - 49.35
Arafat Sunny (SLA) - 50.18
Yasin Arafat (offie)- 64.38
Elias Sunny (SLA)- 52.91
Nadif (SLA) - 62.50

So Yasin Arafat's strike rate is even poorer than Nadif who is considered more of an allrounder. I dont think there is any diffrence in quality among those spinners but the SLAs tend to have better SR for the reason I mentioned in my earlier post. And this makes our selectors go for the SLAs rather than an offie.

In the case of the Academy team, I think the batting prowess of Nadis, Shuvo and Musharaf also played a role in their selection ahead of Rezaul and Yasin. But we really need to groom an offie, so I would have liked if they had preferred Yasin Arafat over Musharaf.

TheWatcher · #25 July 30, 2006, 08:06 PM

Not sure whether strike rate is that important for spinners (they are not called strike bowlers, right ?). To me, anything around 60 should be good enough. Otherwise Enamul Jr or Abdur Razzak probably should not be in the national team.

I think average is a better indicator for them.

Anyrate, Yasin's bowling stats look better than those of Mosharraf Hossain.