by Ahmad A. Iqbal
But I'm yet to realize this 'progress' thing that Dav Whatmore and the whole BD cricket management (including the captain) are talking about.
Yes, Dav has to defend publicly against any criticism of this supposed progress, but I really hope that this kind of 'lets-give-everything-a-positive-spin' speak doesn't take our batsmen into some sort of self- delusional state thinking they couldn?t be that bad.
Barring first test against WI, like most fans, I'm yet to see this so called improvement. DW keeps talking about their lack of experience and mental toughness (or lack thereof) etc, as convenient excuses for consistent dismal performances. I can?t imagine for a talented person like Dav himself even buying any of these very excuses.
What do you call when a supposedly 'world class' Wicket Keeper and reliable veteran, who just got a century against WI, took off for a run after hitting a ball straight to the fielder - causing the most crucial player of the game to be ran out?
Where's the maturity in that?
What makes a test caliber batsman with plenty of international experience poke at a ball that was swinging wide off stump and give practice catches to the fielders? Over and over and over again?
What kind of a leader gets caught with a delivery as if a deer caught in headlights, without offering any answer?
I agree with others who said we weren?t necessarily expecting a win rather hoping to see a good fight.
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Repeating same mistakes over and over
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Along with the fans like myself, the BD cricket team must be in some sort of self-denial state. When we do good, we start to shower the players with out-of-the world adjectives (read world-class bowler), rewards inconsistent with performance level etc. (yes I do believe in pos. re-enforcement but with balanced work/reward ratio).
The cricketers probably started to believe that they are better than what the stats might suggest. As a result they don't really try to undo even their very rudimentary mistakes.
There is absolutely NO excuse for repeating the same mistakes over and over. I really get tired of hearing that ?lack of infrastructure?, ?need more experience? etc.
Sure we need all of that to become a world-class team, but before that we have to stop making same sophomoric, immature mistakes.
Again, no one's expecting them to win everything, crush teams like Australia, but for God's sake when you enter the field, show up to play once. Show the heart, the Bengalee pride once. Go down. Get beaten, Fine?but go down fighting..! I don't think that is too much to ask for. In fact, that is the ONLY thing most fans want at this point. Show some pride.
Just look at the Hong Kong team for example, a team mostly consists of expats, lost both to BD & Pak..but nobody can blame them for lacking heart or pride.
For some reason, this BD team collectively reminds me of a school kid in his early teens. This kid was doing badly in his math tests. In every exam, he'd consistently not even make 33% required to pass. The parents, the uncle who also doubled as a private tutor, knew this kid had what is takes to excel in math.
At home, he seemed to understand the ever so complicated complex interest rate problems, the 'ratio' problems of the dishonest milkman mixing water with milk to increase profit etc. Yet end of each terminal exam, the kid had to be coerced, threatened-for-life to have him show his graded exams to the parents.
The kid, on the other hand, in spite of all the yelling, desperate pedagogy around him would lock himself into a world of his own. Everything said, would just enter in one 'kaan' and get out through the other.
It wasn't till another private tutor assured the kid that his math score didn't matter and was able to convince him to open up and confess that he dreaded sitting in math tests and were always too eager to finish the test. ?I only want to finish as quickly as possible before everyone else?, told the kid of his math tests experience.
Realizing that the kid had his focus/intention sat on the wrong place, the tutor comforted him that he didn't even have to attempt all ten questions, let alone finishing them in the exam.
?You just have to pick one that you feel most comfortable with and take all the time you want to finish that and do that one right, and go on to the next one only if time permitted?, assured the new tutor.
Unbeknownst to the kid, the tutor asked the class teacher not to accept his exam paper before the last bell had rung. The kid took that simple advice to heart, next time around he was able to concentrate only one task at a time and was forced to stay in his seat and really read and understand the problems.
Needless to say the result was a dramatic turnaround. He actually started to believe that he could do math and thanks to his improved results, he started to even enjoy math.
That forced focus/concentration would pay kudos for this kid for years to come. For this lack of math-phobia would help him to survive (albeit barely) extremely math-centric engineering education later in life. Though never was a math whiz, even in his utter defeat, he never ran away from the math monster.
Although BD team hears all the clutters around them, I don't think any of it is being registered in the right lobes in their brains. It seems that once in the crease, they're going back to their comfort zones and letting old habits run them. Why else would Kapali and company keep going to the same suicidal fishing expedition around them?
This team, unfortunately, lacks the maturity to overcome these bad habits on their own recognition. They have been given a lot of time to rectify their nagging mistakes. It?s about time the honeymoon should be over and they ought to be subjected to some tough regimental routines or directives.
Each batsman should be allocated a 'quota' of overs/time/runs that they must survive/score, based on their batting orders. If they fail, consequences should be exemplary and be served as deterrent.
Truly, it is sad that at this stage of our test playing status, we have to think of enforcing regiments suited for misbehaving juveniles. Sometimes, I suppose it is necessary to 'beat pride into someone' for them to recognize what pride is.
Till then we remain painfully optimistic.