Bangladesh cricket experienced its best days last year. The national side brought glory to the country and emerged as one of the powerhouses of world cricket. The Tigers were brilliant in the 2015 ICC World Cup and their ODI series wins against the cricketing giants were spectacular to say the least.
It is, therefore, obvious that the country’s focus would shift automatically to the Bangladesh Under-19 side currently participating in the 2016 ICC U-19 World Cup, more so because it is being held at home. There is a good presence of media following the junior Tigers and the entire nation’s attention is fixated on them.
Bangladesh U-19 technical adviser Stuart Law however, said he is a bit concerned with all the attention that the junior Tigers are getting. The 47-year old also believes outside pressure will eventually weigh the youngsters down.
When queried as to how the team management is dealing with all the pressure and expectations, Law said, “It is easy mate. They desperately want to work hard every day. That’s not an issue for us. Unfortunately, the weight of expectations from the outside group’s probably going to weigh them (the players) down more than anything we are talking about. The amount of press (media) here watching their practice is more than what Australia team get during an international series. It’s a bit of a concern for me.
“The amount of pressure you guys are putting on the young players; the Australian cricket team during the Ashes series doesn’t have this many people watching their training.”
This reply came as a surprise to many of the media personnel who have had different experiences while covering the other teams participating in the age-level tournament. All the other teams, including the likes of England and South Africa, crave for some media attention. There are even occasions when a media manager of a particular team suggests a correspondent or two to ask some questions during any one-on-one interview.
But the Bangladesh U-19 think-tank has apparently adopted a back-foot strategy with regards to all the hype surrounding the cricketers. Not only is the media kept away from the cricketers due to “team protocol”, there are reports that the junior Tigers have limited access to a social life. On top of that, they were also asked to refrain from using social media and mobile phones as much as possible.
One simple thing which is being overlooked by Law is that the media so far has been limited in throwing criticism towards the cricketers considering their age and it is the good deeds that are being highlighted mostly.