Khaled Mahmud was a vice captain for the Bangladesh national time for a long time. When Bangladesh earned the Test Status, everyone thought that if Aminul Islam does not get the captancy, then Khaled Mahmud will.
But the selectors and the board thought of the whole captancy issue on a quite different route altogether. They had chose somebody new to be the captain of the Bangladesh team for the inaugural test match. It was Naimur Rahman.
Everyone now knows that as a test cricketer, both Naimur Rahman and Khaled Mahmud are similar in their playing abilities. If Khaled Mahmud had been the captain of the Bangladesh team in the inaugural test against India, then he would have had the same fate as Naimur did then.
Anyway, Khaled Mahmud had a poor form and so he was overlooked to be the captain, whereas Naimur Rahman showed a spirited performance during the world cup 1999, so he was chosen the next captain of Bangladesh after Aminul Islam.
Many would agree to the fact that it was the right time for Khaled Mahmud to be the captain of the Bangladesh team at that time, had it not been for his poor form as a player.
The trend that had started at that time, still continues. The present selectors and the board are still in favor of younger players, overlooking the grit, form and experience of the senior players. This is not a bad thing, but we are now having to suffer the bad effects of those decisions and that kind of mentality of the administrators earlier.
A few months ago, the administartors were talking to the media about making a younger captain, someone like Hannan Sarkar or Mushfiqur Rahman as the captain or the vice captain of the side, and eventually make him the captain of the Bangladesh team in the next world cup.
Now they are rumoured to be taking the decision of staying with the present captain Khaled Mahmud. What they are now overlooking is that after the tenure of Khaled Mahmud, may be only Habibul Bashar is the best possible choice to be the captain. And like Mahmud earlier, they are making the same mistake - not giving the captancy to Habibul Bashar when it is the perfect time for him to be the captain.
Thinking in reality terms, Khaled Mahmud won't survive until the next world cup, and if there is anybody in the current national squad who will play in the next world cup to be the captain, it has to be Habibul Bashar. Because even by the year 2007, other younger players will not be old enough to be given the responsibility of the captain.
There was a time during Akram Khan's time that he got injured and Aminul Islam, the then vice captain had to lead the team in his absence for an ODI match. We need something like that to happen.