Lack of analysis
Ahmed Iftekhar Khan, Thailand
I have been reading the sports columns of your newspaper over the past month and have closely followed Bangladesh cricket team's performance during the World Cup tournament. What has bothered me most, despite the fantastic tour, is the captaincy of Habibul Bashar. I keep reading that Habibul defends himself by saying that even though he has batted badly his captaincy has been good, but I personally can't see how he can claim so! I am surprised to hear such statements and also to see that your reporters support this view and never point out the flaws in his captaincy in their articles! Anyone with an understanding of cricket would clearly see that his field setting, right after the power-play, allows the opposition team to accumulate runs in the middle overs. Having just four fielders inside the ring will never cause problems to a class batsman and that is where we keep losing control of the match. Why is the captain so obsessed with stopping boundaries when Dhoni wins the match on one leg by simply taking singles? When will we realise that when class players at international level are allowed to score freely, they become set and attack us during the last 10 overs, destroying the outstanding effort of our bowlers during the start of the game? When will the team management realise that Bashar is too defensive as a captain and gives away the initiative to the opposition rather than trying to attack? I feel that a modern captain must be creative and yet Bashar is just the opposite. He has this set bowling change pattern that he repeats over and over! He has no creative instincts as to give Razzaq a slip fielder or a short-leg to Mashrafe when they are bowling well or to take them off if they do not fire. I think that his only focus is on stopping the boundaries rather than creating pressure and getting a batsman out during the middle overs. You can see this clearly if you review the matches against Ireland and West Indies . Habibul Bashar also does not react to the situation as a captain. He doesn't attack when a new batsman comes in, neither does he send Mashrafe up the order when quick runs are required. He doesn't correct his mistakes either which can be seen from how far the slip fielders stand from the keeper when Mashrafe bowls! Catches fell short of the slip fielders in the World Cup and it happened again against India at a crucial juncture. Throughout the tournament Shahriar Nafees, one of our key batsmen, has struggled in the opening slot and yet there was no move to send him down the order and push Mushfiqur Rahim up to the opening slot. To me these are issues that need to be analysed and brought up in your articles.
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