To the moderator, could you please post this in your website to clear up a few myths regarding our performance at the World Cup.
To the author, Mr Adnan Sadeque, to whom I have never met nor spoken to, but would appreciate the opportunity to sit and discuss cricket with him
Can I make a couple of points regards your critique:
Coaches ? to my knowledge and after having reviewed the status of coaching accreditation in Bangladesh, there are still only 3 coaches, qualified higher than Level 1 working within the BCB. If there are other coaches working within Bangladesh I would love to meet them and get them involved. To me, this is the key to creating a stronger test playing nation. We need to have qualified coaches working at all levels of the game to improve the overall standard.
Match pressure: the question at the press conference was, ?Did I think the occasion got the players??? I said that the players would have been affected somewhat by the crowd and the expectation, they are only human after all. I did not however say that it was why we lost. We were beaten by a superior team on the day.
The toss: After much deliberation between the selection panel of the captain, both coaches and two senior players, the group decided that our best option was to bowl first, and gain maximum out of the wicket if there was to be any life in it at all, it would be early. The NZ India game exposed this where the ball moved around for the first 20 overs. Had the Indian?s won the toss they were going to bowl first as well. Hence they played 3 seamers as well, instead of the two they played against NZ.
The option of bowling first was trying to play to our strength, we backed our bowling attack to get early wickets and expose their middle order, who had not scored many runs to date. The two openers batted very well. We created a few chances and missed a couple of catches. No one means to drop catches and we have worked very hard on our fielding, along with all other aspects of our game. Had a couple of chances worked our way it may have been a different game.
The Indian team, have several players with extensive Rangi Trophy experience, some of whom such as Ambati Rayadu, who has a first class averages of 45. A quality first class competition where there is tough cricket is played consistently, is essential to developing players once they leave the Under 17 ranks. After this age group the game is more mental then, skill related. We have a group of players with skill and natural ability. But we lack the ability to sustain our concentration and temperament in the face of quality bowling, over a sustained period to time. The reason for this is that they players are rarely exposed to such bowling. We have players with first class or Test experience. We must be careful, when saying this though. One or two test matches doesn?t provide an extensive amount of experience. If a player has played a dozen tests of ODI?s and performed well then they can it can be said, that experience is of real value to the program. I am sure that many of the players in the U19 squad will go on to play many years of successful test cricket and I want to hel pt hem reach that goal.
Talha Jubaer ? Tahla Jubaer is injured and has a prolapsed disc in his spine which we only discovered after sending him for an MRI on the 16th of Feb. We had previously been informed that he had already had an MRI and that it was all clear, hence that path was not pursued earlier. Talha may have been able to bowl 4 to 5 overs in the Indian match. Only prior to the Indian game could he bowl pain free, after to succumbing to his injury on the day before the NZ game. Combine this with the fact that he has hardly played a game of cricket in two years, the decision not to select him ahead of the other bowlers was not an easy one, but one that as a group with thought was correct. I do not question Talha?s ability at all and selected him in the WC squad on the basis of watching him bowl twice. He was a risk we carried into the competition hoping he would get through. Unfortunately it did not work out that way.
The NRR is based on runs scored per over faced, not just runs scored against runs conceded per over. So therefore, all we had to do was beat India, as our NRR was higher than NZ by about 0.6. We scored 96 off 12 overs which was actually worth more than NZ 380 and just less than India?s 425. Had Nafees not blocked out the 11th over to give Naeem the strike to enable him to get 50 we would have had a better NRR for the Scotland match than India. The rules are written quite clearly in the participating nations agreement.
Thank you and I enjoy the web site, keep up the good work.
Cheers
Richard McInnes
National Under 19 Coach
Couple of further points:
The asics shoes the boys wear are imported from Australia are the only running shoe recommended by podiatrists around the world. The importance of this is the reduction of injuries. We need to establish and develop high levels of fitness in the players if they are to compete over five days at Test level and to be able to maintain their intensity in one day games for 50 overs. Poor footwear for training will lead to any number of lower limb injuries and keep players from playing.
Gatorade: is as mentioned an electrolyte replacement drink and is used by almost every test playing nation in the world (or a similar product such as Powerade, same thing different company). It assists in the rehydration process, which although is manageable in the current climate (cooler), when playing in hot humid conditions can pose a real problem as the body can not process enough pure water, to rehydrate the body. Electrolytes are lost through sweat and are are critical in prevention of cramp, which impairs performance. You may notice that we have not had a single cramp since October of last year.
Net Run Rate: is the total runs sored/ over they were scored in, minus the runs conceded / from how many overs bowled. There if you win the match, your NRR will go up, if you lose it will come down, hence after the loss to India, our NRR came down to below NZ. Had we won, it would have gone up further ahead of NZ. Example make 200 off 50 overs, bowl other team out for 150 off 50 overs and your NRR is (200/50) - (150/50) = 1.0. This is done for the total runs and overs for the series, not added match by match. Hope that clears that one up.
Talha's back - a prolapsed disc is serious but we are confident off correcting it through various methods of treatment and rehabilitation.
As for the media, i have tried to be very helpful and cooperative with them. I have supplied captain, vice captain and myself for interviews at all opportunities as specified by the ICC. I have tried to explain to them how we want to play cricket without broadcasting our match plans to the other teams, but maybe i have trouble with the language and my comments get lost in translation. Anyway problem solved, i have taken the remarks on baord and will not be speaking to the media from this point on, where possible. All media will be handled by Ratan.
And finally, if any of you would like to come and spend a day with us at training please let me know. I would be happy to have both supporters and critiques come and watch how we train and how we are approaching the development of Bangladesh Cricketers. I can assure you all that i am giving 100% to do this and was as, or more dissappointed than any of you that we are not in Dhaka right now. Although i must say the Agrabad hotel is very nice, i would still rather be at the Purbani.
Again, if you would like to meet to discuss cricket or come to training at some stage please mail me on richardmATdhakaDOTnet.
Cheers
Richard
Editor's Note: Mr. McInnes reportedly acknowledged his NRR explanation in this article to contain some error as it is possible for NRR to go down even with a win.