Save our cricket

[chinaman]

Seems like the cry for the golden heroes is not going to fade away anytime soon. Perhaps the real cry is not for the person themselves but for the achievements, the happiness, the joy they were able to feed the depeived nation.

Akram Khan, Aminul Islam, Naimur Ralman, Shaharial Hussain, Mehrab Hussain and the likes from the more recent past stand out high in the midst of all time golden boys club that Raquibul, Babu, Hira, Lipu, Suru, Badsha, Farouque, Athar Ali, Prince and the likes founded dot by dot, sweat by sweat.

One can legitimately make the arument that the golden boys brought us the honor and the Test status while the current boys are taking these away from us. This is no longer a funny talk now. ICC is dead serious, thanks to Ponting, Ganguly and the hidden but the biggest mouth of NZ.

We must realise the seriousness of the situation. We must be aware of the dishonor and the ill fate that lay ahead of us.

We must regroup, we must act, and act fast. The BCB, the players and the fans must work in consert to save and restore whatever pride, honor and previllege left for us.

This is not the time to play the blame game. This is not the time to dream about the past. We must wake up to the hursh reality. Our cricket is in life support now. We must save our cricket.

Yestarday, the NewAge quoted Mac Dhudia “We need to be brutally honest with ourselves as to where we are and what we need to do in future.” NewAge also reported that the CEO also called for support from the home crowd as well as the international governing body.

As an organized fan base, we ask the BCB officials to share their thoughts with us here at banglacricket either publicly by posting or privately by email to any of the moderators or admins.

We really need to put aside all the distractions. We need to extend our hands to each other to work out a way to save our cricket.

Our players need to fight the opponents in the field and we the fans and BCB officials need to fight distractors within the ICC and beyond.

[Unknown]

Did anyone think for once that we may have been unlucky and that it will take time, as does anything else, before we can hold our heads high and be proud cricketers?

[chinaman]

Unfortunately the ICC is not for cricket anymore. They are after money now. It is beyond me that how the ICC expect a four year old Test nation to perform like a champ, like an England or even a West Indies team.

We have no racial issues, no selection issues for God's sake. The whole country is divided in everything else along partisan lines yet we manage to run our cricket with remarkable unity.

Every cricket tournament that we staged on our land todate was highly successful. We did our part to our best.

As a young test nation, we are just taking our time to be with par with others. It is just a matter of few years and the ICC knows it. Yet they are trying to judge our Test performane with the ODI results.

Well, 14 million people aren't fool. The ICC must take a note of it.

[ZunaidH]

Chinaman;

I think you have put forth a valid point. Everyone of us need to chip in here. I don't have much to say about the nay sayers regarding relegation of our cricket in the international arena. For those who were venting their frustration, I am forgiving. But we should effectively be cautious about people who are here to put serious malign against our cricket. For crying out loud we are all here because Bangladesh is playing test cricket. If it wasn't for that this web-site would not stir up so much tempo. So before anyone of you say something negative, please take heed.

We have always had talented cricketers. Yousuf Rahman Babu, Atahar Ali, or Mohammad Rafiq are not co-incidence. The only way for us to achieve something with such players is playing test nations. those of you who are relatively young probably don't understand the history of our cricket. But the truth is we had the talents to play test cricket 20 years ago. We just never believed that we were capable of doing it. Hence, we never organized our way into world cricket.

For the least, I hope some of you would wake up and at least start sending letters to ICC explaining how important this sport is to us. I have been relentless for the past six months sending ICC several letters makign my point. Unfortunately, at this point in time we don't have any allies fromthe test nation countries officially. But if our own people don't believe in our potential, outsiders (e.g. Atul and vv_sunil) will always take every opportuntiy to ridicule us.

As a starter, we need to quit arguing about silly issues as how much better we are than associates. I have mentioned a few times earlier that there is absolutely no point in measuring millimeters. We should look into how much we lag behind the test teams.

I personally hope our cricket players have more self esteem than what we are acknowledging. Eventually, they will have to answer. I hope they realize this simple fact. Because if Dav Whatmore says that BD is a better team than what they display, I have every reason to believe it. I don't think he is doing that to save his job. For right now, Dav alone has more credibility than the entire nation of Bangladesh when speaking cricket. So hush!

For Unkown: Luck is a variable beyond your control as well as mine. No point in pondering over that. Besides, I don't understand how we are unlucky.


For starters, constructive criticism would be a good thing. Let's all write letters to ICC defending our position.

[AussieBloke]

It is also true that unlike past teams, we dont have time at our disposal. We have to start competing with the top nations soon, or in todays consumer based sports we will be left behind. If USA can compete in Worlcup football with their short history (still few people watch football as far as I know), then with the backing of 130 million people why wont we be able to compete with these countries? We have the will, we have the backing of the whole nation, we have the resources. Its not like cricket is the least popular game in BD. In fact its the most popular sport in BD. All we have to do is address our core problems and take measures to deal with them. Writing letters to ICC and pleading with them to overturn their decisions will not help us in the long turn. Lets start building our cricket from the bottom up. Lets start sending our A team to play against county and state teams in India, Pakistan, England and Australia. Lets start helping the batsmen to remodel their batting technique, if required start from the very beginning. lets start looking for good bowlers and bring them up through required programme. lets start rearranging our own house before blaming others. No offence to anyone.

[chinaman]

This thread is not to discuss why we failed to perform or what we need to do to perform. This thread is not even to discuss wheather we believe in our player's potential or to play the blame game. If you are interested in discussing these topic, please find a relavent thread or create a new one.

Whatever happened yestarday had already happened. We must be under no illusion that the honor, pride and previledge we enjoyed are not under threat. Let's discuss here what and how we as a group need to do to instill some reality to the ICC guys. Let's invite the BCB officials to be more open with us. The ICC has threathen us, let's fight it first.

[Ibrahim]

Presently, there is not doubt that Bangladesh cricket is passing very crucial time. As a citizen of Bangladesh and supporter of BD cricket, we have to do everything for the betterment of BD cricket.

We should stop ICC to take any harmful action against BD cricket. We can write personal letter to Malcom Speed, CEO of ICC. Thoughe, it is a short-term target, but for the long-term we have to develop extensive plan. For example, there are very few sports journalists/analysts, who can write good articles in the international media. We need to look at this field as well. We need more functional online forums like BC. I would suggest this forum (BC) should be upgraded something like CricketIinfo or at least as cricketNext.

One thing we can see often in this forum that sometime people does not respect other people’s opinion. I honestly believe that we should respect positive and negative criticism from all of our fans. People, who loves BD team form their heart, sometimes criticize the team performance due to the frustrating result. We should not use harsh word to them too.

[BushidoTiger]

Chinaman,

I started this new thread to get better exposure (instead of replying to your 'Save Our Cricket' thread).

All of us realize that we are at very perilous state. I agree with you trying to mobilize the BD fans.

BanglaCricket.com, in my opinion, can be a leader in propagating this drive to keep our test status.
In that light, I'd like to propose that we start an online petition drive, addressed to the head honcho at ICC.

The petition can be 'authored' by the moderators of this site, after of course, writing some qualitative statements (i.e. this site represents the biggest forum for 140 million + Bangladeshis and their well wishers far and abroad etc.).
[You guys know the drill better than me].

For the sake of not reinventing the wheel, you can probably use/modify copy of a letter by 'ghor_jamai', addressed to some ICC god.

I'm not trying to be lazy by dumping the 'job' on the moderator(s). I truly think it will carry more weight this way.

Once the petition is started, we can all sign it and pass it along to all BC supporters/members both in the Diaspora community and back in BD.

Those of you who are familiar with the detention drive (online or otherwise) know the power of thousands of determined 'voices'.

It changes policies, does wonders.

Below is the link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/create_petition.html

[chinaman]

Thank you BushidoTiger.

Lets see what others have to say about it.

Meanwhile, we can post requests here encouraging the BCB officials to contact us to lead and guide to the appropriate direction. After all they know better than us.

I'll merge this thread with the earlier one for the readers to have a better picture of what subject is all about.

[Navarene]

Petition for what? What will be the subject line?

If the petition is all about to keep our Test status, then I will be the last person to sign. For I will not be in the verge to whine to ICC for our Test status. I'd rather strongly raise my voice and protest to ICC if our status is taken away.

If the petition is for not to restrict us to play away Test matches, I will be the first one to sign.

Should we also not send a petition letter to BCB to take serious necessary steps (for instance, to manipulate a competitive domestic league, to develop a Bangladesh A team and send them abroad to play against England county like teams, to concentrate on making more bouncy wickets in domestic leagues etc), so that the tigers can prove their test status was not a fluke? So that our test status will not be threatened?

Edited on, September 20, 2004, 7:09 PM GMT, by Navarene.
Reason: spelling

[ZunaidH]

Navarene;

From what we gather from cricinfo is what we consider to be the truth. BCB has proved to have missed the word professionalism by miles from its inception. The organization has absolutely no proper communication strategy in place.

I think ICC is not going to take away our test status. But, reduced test roster is probably on the way. It would be nice to know what BCB's position is on the whole issue. I do not mean to spread any rumours here but potentially BCB might have just negotiated that save their face. What I just said is a speculation. Bottomline, we need to get an official position from BCB on what is really going on.

To answer your question about the petition subject following should be in the agenda:

1) Do not revoke our test status

2) Do not limit us to playing home series only

But, before we launch anything we should get BCB into the picture

[say]

guys.. guys...

think about our advantages, our TV market is a big plus for us. Once our team starts performing in five years -- ICC would salivate for our market. Once we start winning games against teams like SriLanka, India or Pakistan in ten years - the big TV companies will go crazy over our matches. All we have to do is, create a better team, fix the individual problems and increase professionalism.

I say we (who are living in the western countries) help our talented young players by all means.

how about we raise money to buy bowling machines for kids back home or creating practice areas in all over the country or try to get a few young kids to play in minor leagues in UK, Australia, South Africa etc.. We can help them in tangible ways - not through petitions or protests or fighting imaginary conspiracies.

[chinaman]

Originally posted by say
... or fighting imaginary conspiracies.

We like to play the same brand of test cricket that other test nations play. ICC will decide next month in Lahore whether to restrict us to play on home ground only or not.

We need to wake up guys.

[DOORBIN]

Our typical social style is a historical feature: it is a combination created from the problems of communication, reluctance to openness, reluctance to creation of proper systems and procedures and an atmosphere of negativity overall.

Some of us are fortunate to have migrated to countries in the western world, therefore getting a chance to closely observe the differences between 'us' and 'them'. These differences have been added over the years, then multiplied. The result? The DIFFERENCE IN REAL PERFORMANCE.

But the question is "Do we really learn from them"? If yes, how much? Have we applied the learning? Where are the examples?

What I really mean is, where are the BCB people? To my knowledge, this is the best place to talk about Bangladesh cricket, why don't we get their participation in this forum? Where is Beximco? Where is Transcom and Islam Group? Where is the emerging United Group? Why don't we find them here at banglacricket.com? If they are here, why are they hidden?

A LARGE MAJORITY OF US ARE TOO BUSY, FOR SOME STRANGE REASON.

If we can't get united for a noble purpose, that's nothing else but our bad luck....

Sorry if I have offended anyone

If I did, I apologise, because I love Bangladesh cricket ... why me only? We all love it, don't we? The country has achieved very few things, and one of those is the glamourous status in world cricket, something that fascinates us I guess...

But it is time to realise that 'potential' is one thing and 'performance' is another. We take a lot of time to come upto speed, which is not normally allowed by world standards. It's best to be practical, change the gear and concentrate on performance. F A S T. (I agree a lot with 'say')

Edited on, September 21, 2004, 3:12 AM GMT, by DOORBIN.

[PoorFan]

In my opinion, this threat hasn't come suddenly in front of us.
A lot of concern voices was there for a long time, and as a result which proved to be ignored by us.
No matter how hard we tried, how much we struggled, how young our team is,
our ODI performance says everything since we got ODI status.
That's the only thing which matters to those foreign people ( poor performance ).
One more big thing is there as Chinaman said, It's about cricket business and money,
which has been drastically changed these days compare to old days.
We can not just pass it by put it aside, when big countries are already involved for their own interest.

Because of this huge cricket market, ICC and other big company
may try to restructure world cricket for their benefit.
And the big cricket players are also getting more and more professional
and taking this opportunity for their career too.
In one sense this is the current flow of the world cricket and it's natural,
but we have to live with it, no matter we like it or not.

So in my opinion, it is not wise to argue about 20 or 30 years old cricket world,
and showing them how long it took to win a match for India, Srilanka or NZ.
I also don't support any kind of activities like make demo in Lahore or
in front of hotels where ICC members stays at that meeting.
That kind of activities will put our images down more, because of our poor performances of last 5 years.

So I think we should prepare a latter or petition whatever you call ( like BushidoTiger said ),
"asking favor" of ICC and others nations board to "allow" us more time till 2007 WC.
Explaining our bad points, good points, future vision and plan in "positive manner",
that we are heading to the right direction and will bring some good result within that time.
All of us can sign to it, gather it as a bundle of thousand fans request, and hand it over to ICC via BCB.

Personally I think we should offer them that we are ready to surrender our ODI status
if we fail to improve in that time. ( A lot of people may get angry on me......but please dont.....)
In fact, this ODI status is putting bad images on BD,
and lot of people are finding lot of issues from this situation, which is not good for BD at all.
So let just face it in a positive manner, ask for time till 2007 WC and surrender our ODI status,
if we fail till then. ( Before they take it back from BD by force, which could be more painful for BD )
Let BD the first country in history who have that guts and pride in cricket
and committed to improve cricket standard and they can do.
If we can improve our standard in a consistence manner some day,
I am sure the people will naturally stand by us that day,
those who are pointing their fingers to us now.

[Piranha]

As far are petitions go here is my two cents. Here is what I see as a general consensus among the fans at BC. Feel free to disagree about what I have written down here:

- First and foremost, we should send an open letter to the BCB , maybe publish in the daily star, saying that a strong and fertile domestic cricket infrastructure is the most pressing concern at the moment.

We could also mention:

- Despite our cricket team's repeated poor performances, we (as cricket fans), stand united with the team. We want to make ourselves heard by saying that cricket is an issue of great national pride and importance - something that transcends political and other rivalries.

- despite what the world says, a majority of the fans have persevered and shown much patience for a very long time. We stand willing to show our patience and perseverance for as long as necessary provided that we see the BCB is keeping cricket 'on the right track'.

- we need to reduce choppping and changing our team and be consistent in our selection policy.

Edited on, September 21, 2004, 2:09 PM GMT, by Piranha.
Reason: typo and clarity

[ZunaidH]

Piranha;

Go for it. Take it to Daily Star. Perhaps you may consider taking away the last line from your post. I disagree on the last line. I think we should let BCB decide on the selection committee and process. If chopping is necessary, let them do it. We should not judge the decision. We can criticize the outcome and hence they can hopefully rectify the mistakes. Since it is not kindargarten we can safely assume that they are 100% responsible when making selection decisions. Distrust at the offset is not a good thing. Let's believe in honour code.

[Sam]

First: In my opinion, the petition should be prepared and sent.
But this petition should not be mere begging something from ICC, rather should be based on reality, about our real problems and potentials. I remember, after opening ceremony of the last U-19 World Cup in Dhaka, Mr. Malcolm Speed told the journalists that, ICC will be happy if Bangladesh gets one test win within next two years. We have to explain our position and our eagerness to achieve something more than that minimum.
A petition is a voice, a voice of millions. It carries the hopes and passions of entire nation. I believe, ICC will go through the contents and judge the reality. I don't know whether ICC alone can decide anything by its own, it should be decided by all the full members together. Can we think about simillar letters (not petition) to the Member Boards, appealing for fair judgment, so that they will sympathize on this matter by understanding the reality and our problems. We have a bright side of our problem, that it is not based on political or racial issues. What we need is time and effort. Our main objective at this point is to earn 'Time' from the world body.

Second: We need to support our petition or statement by some action from everybody related to cricket in Bangldesh. Why I am selecting "everybody, related to cricket" not BCB, because BCB alone cannot go ahead with all the plans. Remember, last year there was no domestic cricket league in Dhaka! BCB tried their extreme, but despite all efforts they could not make the clubs to agree to stage that league. Ultimately BCB came forward with the Corporate League. Now, when we are talking about our problems to ICC or other test nation, what is our reply for not having the domestic league! Cricket cannot grow, improve or mature without competitive leagues/tournaments. We have to highlight in press conferences about the activity and achievements, the High Performance Team concept, organization of competitive tournaments, composing regular 'A' team and sending them abroad etc.

Third: Our Board should be more vocal. I can see, only our caoch Dav Whatmore is the only person who is trying to give positive image of our cricket. I believe that he means it, but similar statements and course of actions should be announced by the CEO, Chairman or likes.



Edited on, September 21, 2004, 7:19 PM GMT, by Sam.

[fwullah]

I'm not sure whether I'm talking off-topic here, thinking and looking at the past performances of the Bangladesh team, I am getting more and more confident in saying this, that "I strongly believe that even if we had not gained test status during 2000, we would have earned it by now (the year 2004). It was only a matter of time and like every test playing nation, we were to show some struggling performances in the initial stages whether we had received the test status during 1998 - before we actually got it, or during 2000 - the exact time where we got it, or during 2003/2004 - the most appropriate time for us to get the test status - either way, there is no other country left besides us to be given the 10th test playing nation's membership."

Now here's the catch - with each time Bangladesh is touring a country, or playing a different opponent, Bangladesh is creating more and more fans both at home and abroad, thereby demand for watching Bangladesh's cricket games are on the rise. Now the ICC is not realizing this for a fact as of yet because the profit is not yet as they're expecting because Bangladesh is not currently winning any matches overnight, but after few years, they'll understand it and they'll realize their mistake - and they'll be fools to deprive other test playing nations for playing against Bangladesh on their countries.

If they successfully manage to implement what they want right at this moment, they will be the biggest losers of all in terms of earning huge sums of money as their profit, and they will only be regretting by that time, because the way that things will be going, after some wins that Bangladesh cricket team's games will be on a high demand and there will not be anybody to grab the money, except for Bangladesh itself, because then Bangladesh will be only playing at home grounds and money is earned only by hosting matches at home by the home-board.

Now in terms of cricket - one has only to look at the records of Bangladesh - the success rate of Bangladesh cricket team is much better in abroad than at home. Besides, nobody until now, has spoken about Bangladesh's achievements during 1999 at the time when Bangladesh had some great successes, and as a team, Bangladesh was playing very good cricket - recently, Ranatunga has said this. There is another thing - While India's cricket structure was set up in such a way that during the '90s India were only good at home, but very bad in away matches, Bangladesh is in the process of being forced to be better at home and bad at away matches. Can this be good for cricket in general?

[Zobair]

Well...I must say that after Ehsan Mani I can breathe easier! He made three things clear.

1) Bangladesh's Test Status is NOT under any threat.
2) Bangladesh's will play overseas tours
3) Bangladesh will play more home series and a smaller proportion of overseas tours.

Personally I thought Mani made some good points. For one, currently our players have no time to regroups after a series. Our domestic first class cricket is not upto par. With a fewer series to worry about, the national players will be able to play more first class cricket in Bangladesh and lend more meaning and intensity to our first-class cricket. 4 home series and an overseas tour, or 3 home series and 2 overseas tours in a calender year would leave enough time for a full domestic season. What do you think?

[PoorFan]

Well...I must say that after Ehsan Mani I can breathe easier! He made three things clear.

1) Bangladesh's Test Status is NOT under any threat.
2) Bangladesh's will play overseas tours
3) Bangladesh will play more home series and a smaller proportion of overseas tours.

....4 home series and an overseas tour, or 3 home series and 2 overseas tours in a calender year would leave enough time for a full domestic season. What do you think?

Yes, It's a very positive comment for BD from a high level ICC official like Ehsan Mani.
I think it's reasonable for BD, if the things goes as he said.
Although we don't know yet what would be the real picture after reschedule.

As pompous said, 3 home series and 2 overseas is sounds good to me.
If we can get that kind of support from ICC and other nations,
then it's our turn to do the best of our home work.

[fwullah]

Well for a start, I would like to see us playing some practice matches against the 'A' team(s) and/or provincial teams before meeting the test sides on our overseas tours.