The New Nation - Internet Edition

Yousuf Rahman Babu

For someone who has played the game with honour and dignity during the formative years of Bangladesh cricket, I find it disheartening and frustrating to find our cricketers of today performing at a level that can be compared to, at best, England's county cricket level or perhaps a grade lower. This is in spite of huge amount of money being spent on coaches, training aids, round the year international competition and exposure to top class cricket. There has been little or no improvement in the quality of cricket. Yes, we may have shocked a very few once in a blue moon but, in reality, there has been no significant accomplishment in maintaining any sort of positive consistency. When we beat the Indians and the S. Africans in the World Cup of 2007, I had believed (my judgmental error) and written that the minnows had finally jumped out of the tank and changed into sharks, until the match against Ireland told it all. The world's cricketing upstarts got booted back into their appropriate abode in a flash.

In a recent radio (Hello Washington) talk show programme, Akram Khan the former national cricketer and current selector (like every administrator of the previous years) asked for more time and cited the example of New Zealand's 26 years to win their 1st Test. Well Akram needs to study the history of the game and get the facts straight. New Zealand played only 47 Tests in those 26 years, 18 of which they had drawn against some of the best sides world cricket has ever seen. We have so far already played 53 Tests in 7 years and lost 50 of them (90% or more within 3 days), drew 2 of them because of inclement weather and won 1 against a second string Zimbabwe side. I think cricket followers of Bangladesh needs to be spared from this baseless comparison.

One is puzzled why a team that has beaten two top teams in the same tournament can end up losing to a lowly rated side like Ireland within a span of a week. After more than 7 years, Bangladesh cricket fans are questioning the plan, the purpose and the quality of our cricketers and cricket administrators. I am not surprised at all by their inability to compete at the highest level. The answer lies in the systematic dismantling of our cricketing culture over the last few years. We have preferred quantity to quality.

Cricket is a game that is played 80% with your head and 20% with the rest of your body. No matter how physically fit and strong you may be, if you cannot think and apply in the middle, you become ineffective and non-productive. I found it quite amusing when our media and the others in BD cricket found it exciting when our cricketers were subjected to a so called "commando" training organised by the BD Army. Simply put, if brawn was the only factor, then all the jawans would be excellent cricketers. That exercise, other than a cheap publicity stunt has not achieved anything positive. As expected, our boys were thrashed and humiliated against the Sri Lankans.

Prior to the 90's, the best players of the country came from the country's educational institutions. In the National Championships Dhaka University fielded the best team in the country. Schools like Scholastica, and Wills Little Flower produced some of the best young cricketers in the country. These players were scholar athletes. Slowly and systematically we have destroyed this process. Today, our cricketers are either illiterate or at best half-educated, which means that they have not even finished high school. Those that boast about going to college are enrolled only as a gesture. It would be interesting to test their academic skills. The opportunity to learn from the game's best players is lost because their lack of education prevents them from developing their communication skills. Good communication skills create inspiration amongst the players and we all know that a successful unit depends on communication and inspiration. I am not sure if our cricket team has these two qualities.

There is a myth circulated and established in Bangladesh by our administrators. If you play cricket you have to drop out of your academic programme. I clearly recall the past Chairman of the Selection Committee mentioning this to my nephew when he was barely 14 years old. Those who preach and practice this principle are committing a severe social crime. What is their responsibility to the ones who are not going to make the national grade? These youngsters will give up their studies to pursue a career in cricket, which eventually can be a high paying profession provided they make the grade. If not, which most of them will not, they are left to fend for themselves.

Some may argue that there are players like Sachin Tendulkar and a few others in Pakistan and India that have not finished high school. First of all, Tendulkar is a gifted genius and I don't think there will another Tendulkar in the next 40 to 50 years. Secondly, countries like India and Pakistan have set and developed their game encompassing players that came from highly educated background. Even Tendulkar developed his cricket amongst players with strong educational back grounds. It is a cact that Pakistani administrators are seriously concerned about their players' lack of proper educational background. There is no doubt that this drawback has hampered the team's performances in recent times. One should check the educational background of the senior Indian and Sri Lankan players. Sangakkara, one of the best wicket-keeper batsman in the world, studied law and I am told, is a qualified attorney. Mahendra Dhoni, apparently has enrolled himself into a from programme to enhance his education base. Why should one of the richest players in India have to go back to school? There is a valid reason for this.

Several years ago, during the days of former BCB Chief Macky Dudhia, I had submitted a plan on setting up a programme to educate our young cricketers. When I met Macky at Lord's during the Bangladesh-England Test, he expressed his disappointment in not being able to do anything with my memo although he believed in its substance totally. The plan is a simple one and is based on the US NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) program. Just to make the readers aware, Tiger Woods attended Stanford University as did John McEnroe the former Tennis great. Similarly, most of the best sportsmen in the USA have come through the collegiate programme including basketball greats Larry Bird, Irwin "Magic" Johnson, Shaquue O'Neal and countless others. Although they got enrolled in high profile US colleges under athletic scholarships, they had to maintain their required academic grades in order to keep their scholarships intact. The same principal can be applied to Bangladesh Cricket.

The ideal place to introduce such a programme would be the BCB Cricket Academy.

* Make it mandatory for all players to be full time students maintaining an average B grade. The BCB should hire 3 teachers on its own - one each for English, Math and Science. The players' training programme should be inclusive of their academic skills. If they fail to maintain their academic grades, they are to be dropped from the programme.

Schools and other educational institutions must be encouraged to promote the game. Student cricketers are to be carefully monitored. Again, if they drop their academic grades, they have to drop out of the cricket programme. The Board should not consider drop outs for selection.

Selection for the National teams should also be based on the academic skills of the players. The minimum average educational qualification of a player has to be a bachelor's degree. Again, no school drop - outs should be considered for selection. If the players do not make the academic grade they lose their position in the side and with that they lose their pay. Believe me, if they lose their income, they will study and make up their grades.

There is no use in hiring expensive high quality coaches for our poorly educated cricketers. It is a case of a Ph.D trying to teach physics to a group of elementary school students. Dav Whatmore, after being associated with our players for several years, expressed his frustration in Bangladesh's last WC pre-match interview.

He basically resigned to the fact that the players were just boys, over-zealous and simply lacked the experience and understanding on how to apply their potential abilities once they were in the middle. This was from a man who had coached BD cricket to supposedly great heights and is considered one of the best in the business. Since then, Whatmore has taken over the Indian Cricket Academy and their Under-19 squad that recently won the World Cup. Again, it is not up to the coach who imparts the training but to the players who must receive. They can only receive if they have the understanding and the education to support their ability to understand.

Give Jamie Siddons another year or two and he will also leave with similar sentiments.

Once the BCB sets the selection standards, the players will follow. At the moment it is the blind leading the blind. If Ashraful had come from a sound academic background and truly knew what cricket was all about, he would never have reacted the way he did when he got into a fist fight with a fan in the stands. This is unacceptable behaviour for any cricketer and the fact that he is the standing skipper of the national side makes it unpardonable. The way the BCB handled the situation is also quite appalling. It only goes to show the weakness of the BCB. Imagine someone like Ricky Ponting or Anil Kumble jumping into the stands to fight the crowd! Andy Flintoff was removed from his position when he was involved in a late night drinking binge during the World Cup of 2007. I wonder if local club interest prevailed over national interest in this case!

There is still time to save our cricket and our future cricketers. Implement the programme without any delay and if we are lucky, we may see the results in about 5 years or so. If not, we will continue to see personnel changes in the Board who will sing the same song like a broken record "We need more time."

Remember playing cricket and becoming a cricketer are two different things. Cricket creates character. It is a way of life and the are lessons to be learnt from this great game. Bangladesh is producing cricket players only. It is time we started producing some cricketers.