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Old July 26, 2007, 11:58 PM
WarWolf WarWolf is offline
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Default Cricket: Sri Lankan Model and Its Possible Adoption in Bangladesh

This is the time to reformat and reconstruct the cricketing structure of Bangladesh. In this article, we will dig into the cricketing structure of Sri Lanka as a role model and propose a suitable model for Bangladesh. The reason behind choosing Sri Lanka as our role model is simple. Sri Lanka is a very good competitive cricketing side in international cricket these days. They are a third world country like us from the same sub continent. We have similarities in social, political and other local factors. So it would be wise for us to choose Sri Lanka as our role model other than Australia or any other nation.

Cricket Structure of Sri Lanka

Domestic Competitions:
Sri Lanka has two first class tournaments. Premier League tournament (Premier Trophy) involves major 16 cricket clubs. These clubs play a very important role in nurturing young talents. Newly formed inter-provincial first class tournament includes five provinces in the competition.

The List A tournament (Premier Limited-Over-Tournament) and the Twenty20 competition (Twenty-20 Tournament) involve all the premier cricket clubs.They have an excellent 2 days under-23 domestic tournament which involves different premier league club teams. An attractive inter-school cricket tournament, which involves more than 400 schools, is the best way to find young raw talents.

De-Centralization of Cricket:
In total, 5 provincial cricket associations along with more than 22 district cricket association play important role in de-centralization of cricket in Sri Lanka. Thus cricket has reached every corner of Sri Lanka other than just being centered on Colombo.

Youth Development:
Sri Lankan Cricket has assigned full time coaches for all the district and provincial teams in order to develop young players all around the country.The coaches are based at training centers within their respective districts or provinces.

Sri Lanka Cricket also runs a series of youth tournaments. There is an Inter-District Tournament at three different age groups; Under-14, Under-16 and Under-19 -- in which 25 districts participate each year. The best players from here are selected for the provincial tournament, in which five provinces currently participate. These provincial squads then form the pool of players from which the national youth squads are selected.

Cricket Academy:
The Sony Max Cricket Academy was set-up in 2003 to offer specialized and intensive skill training support to a selected group of talented players.A fully-equipped training centre with high-quality turf nets, a gymnasium, seminar rooms and a dormitory for the players was constructed. Cricketers from the age of 18 up to a maximum of 23 are selected by the national selectors.

Preparation for the National Side:
The cricket board relies on the ‘A’ team for bridging the gap between domestic and international cricket. This gives players invaluable exposure to overseas teams in a variety of conditions. Sri Lanka also participates in international U19, U17 and U15 tournaments.

There are seperate national Fast Bowlers Unit and Spin Bowlers Unit. Both units are for upcoming youngsters and are selected after the U17 and U19 school seasons. Each squad includes 20-24 bowlers aged from approximately 17-21 years old.

Coaching Education:
Quality coaching is one of the most important things to produce enough quality players. Sri Lanka Cricket is determined to ensure that school, district, provincial, club and national level coaches are given access to up-to-date cricket training methods and techniques. The SLC Coach Education Unit runs a series of courses for coaches.

Efficiency Assurance:

In order to assure efficiency and transparency, Sri Lankan Cricket follows several methods. A five years plan with detailed budget gives long term focus on objectives. Operation monitor with quarterly review, automated fiancé operating system, development and implementation of financing strategy are main reason for their success. All these activities are monitored by an audit committee.


Proposed Model for Bangladesh

De-Centralization of Cricket:
So far cricket is centered on Dhaka. We need to de-centralize it to the every corner of the country in order to bring enough quality players. There should be separate five full functional divisional cricket associations. Our current district cricket associations should be made stronger with different activities.

Youth Development:
At present, we don’t have full time coaches for divisional and district cricket associations. Recently BCB decided to provide full time coaches to divisional teams which is a good move. They need to move further by providing full time coaches to district associations. There should be a separate cricket coaching center run by every divisional and district association with the help of full time coaches. Each of these coaching centers should have sufficient number of natural practice turfs and a separate cricket gym. Indoor nets with bowling machines in each of these centers will be a big boost.

Age group championship in three groups (U-15, U-17 and U-19), involving the district teams, would give the young players enough exposure before coming to first class level. The players sorted out from this tournament can participate in an age group championship of divisional level.

Strengthening Domestic Competitions:
Our domestic cricket leagues are too weak to produce quality players. The only first class cricket tournament in the country, NCL, needs to be reformatted.

Each divisional association should arrange a separate tournament involving the district teams under it. The top players from this tournament will construct the divisional teams which would participate in the NCL. The quality of the wickets in the domestic level is not satisfactory. BCB should provide quality curators to cricket associations in order to ensure the quality of the fast bouncy sporting wickets.

Cricket clubs always played a vital role in development of cricket in this country just like Sri Lanka. BCB should introduce another first class tournament involving the top 10 cricket clubs. As these clubs have enough patrons, they will be able to bring quality foreign players which would make the first class tournament competitive and tough.

Cricket Academy:
BCB already started a cricket academy which is playing a vital role in nurturing the young talents. This is important that the academy gets its own practice ground along with separate gym and other infrastructural supports. BCB should take a long term plan to establish separate cricket academies for each of the divisional cricket associations.The academies should have digital libraries of footages and software to ensure quality training.

Coaching and Curator Training Academy:
BCB needs to establish a coaching and curator training academy. This will be a major step towards right direction. Our country needs a lot of qualified coaches along with quality curators to ensure the course towards the right direction.

Bowling Academy:
Cricket has been able to get attention of the corporate world in our country. BCB should seek investment to establish a bowling academy which would have two separate units; one for fast bowling and another for spin bowling. Top level coaches should be hired to work with raw talented bowlers.

Focus on Age Group and A teams:
Our age group teams are almost as good other top cricketing nations. But at national level, most of the time, we even fail to be competitive. This is because of the reason that we don’t give them enough time and different environments to get matured. Age group teams along with ‘A’ team needs to play more in international level by touring different countries.

Proper Selection Process:
Selection process for our national never has never been consistent. Most of the times, players are pushed too early in international cricket and they has been thrown away as they failed to deliver fast. There should be a proper selection guideline which would make the selection process uniform and fruitful.

Proper Infrastructure:
At present, we have some good stadiums. These stadiums need to have fast sporting green top wickets installed.Most of our stadiums don’t have good drainage system.We need to build an stadium in Cox’s bazaar which is a great tourism place. This would attract more foreigners to our country.

Transparency and Efficiency Assurance:
BCB should run as a commercial organization full of transparency. Professional people need to be hired for different positions in it. Long term plan with budget is a very important thing. Timely monitoring of progress of the plans and separate audit team will make BCB transparent and efficient.

The Last Words:
Quoting one of my fellow members here in BC, Cricket is a PROCESS, not an EVENT or two-- Sohel_NR, our success relies on the fact of following the proper process. If we can make a long term plan with good in-sight, we will surely achieve success in cricket. Otherwise, there is no way to do it except a few success time to time.

Reference:
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Last edited by WarWolf; July 28, 2007 at 10:44 AM..
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