Lack of leadership and inactivity mar Tigers' T20 WC campaign
Minhaz Uddin Khan from Dubai
Publish : 06 Nov 2021, 09:45 AMUpdate : 23 Dec 2021, 06:39 PM
Failing to play as an unit on the field was one of the chief drawbacks for Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2021.
The side completed a dreadful campaign in the world event Thursday with zero win to their name in the Super 12 stage.
The team reached Dhaka Friday evening in two different flights, while the coaching staff traveled to their respective homes.
Four cricketers chose to stay back in Dubai with family for another week.
Bangladesh went into the tournament with hopes of playing the semi-finals but as it happened, they failed to change their track record in the tournament – they are still winless in the main event.
In Group 1 of the Super 12s, Bangladesh finished at the bottom among the six teams.
The keen followers of Bangladesh cricket agree the side looked shattered when on the field.
The body language and the attitude only worsened with every defeat and the players missed out on proper leadership to inject in them encouragement and extra motivation.
In team sports, the unity is equally important off the field but perhaps this was one tournament in many years the Bangladesh cricketers were all on their own.
There are restrictions in place for the teams due to Covid-19; the teams simply cannot move out from the bio-secured bubble, and their movement is limited to certain areas in the hotel and in the field.
With the team losing, the exchange of emotions between the senior members of the team with other stakeholders through media, and the intensity of pressure from outside the dressing room meant the players were simply drained of their confidence in the month-long tour.
It had become important for Bangladesh cricketers to find some time to cool-off the tensions which could have come from arrangements in the team hotel and it could have been as simple as some hours spent together talking of everything but cricket.
But as heard from the closest members of the team, with no activities in place and none taking the lead to get something arranged, the players would mostly stick to their rooms and only meet during the breakfast or the team meetings.
There is argument that team management should have thought of ways of puncturing the pressure off the payers, but traditionally in the Bangladesh team, it had come from the players’ end.
For years former ODI captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza and the current ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal were in charge of such arrangements.
Team dinner to extent of cooking their own food, board and card games or simply chitchats over cup of tea and coffee would be the favorite ways of the cricketers to pass the time in the hotel.
“They simply had nothing to do. You look for ways to relieve the pressure through activities off the field but as we all saw the players’ body language and attitude in the field worsened with every game,” said a member close to the team to Dhaka Tribune requesting anonymity.
“It is not the first time Bangladesh had a bad outing but perhaps the first time there was no one to help the players out. We all saw the issues that happened off the field, which even involved wife of a cricketer directly criticizing other cricketers on social media. These events had only dented the team’s morale,” he added.
The silence in the team has been to such an extent that the players would not speak even in the team meetings.
The underperforming players thought it better to keep quiet as putting opinions on the table would return as a boomerang.
One can raise the question why the seniors in captain Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim or Shakib al Hasan did not come forward under such situation of the team.
It is widely established in the cricket fraternity that this trio simply don’t have the characteristics in them.
Shakib is known as a character who keeps to himself while Mahmudullah and Mushfiq are known to be active and fun only when they are performing in the field.
Alongside the cricketers, the Bangladesh team management with head coach Russell Domingo in the lead has also faced heavy criticism.
Fingers have been raised towards the coaching panel regarding their responsibility as the team failed and lost matches to disastrous mistakes on the field, such as dropping regulation catches.
High-up of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is soon expecting a team evaluation report from the coaching panel.
But it is understood that the decision makers of the board have already been verbally informed partially of the report.
The evaluation involves reports on individual cricketers – of their activities on and off the field and if they have been good listeners.
With Domingo remaining as the head coach for two more years Bangladesh’s next big tournament will be another T20 World Cup, in 2022 in Australia.
Domingo has already hinted of drawing a road map to the tournament starting now but doubt remains – the team were also convinced they had a strong build up to the tournament this year.
Lack of leadership and inactivity mar Tigers' T20 WC campaign
Failing to play as an unit on the field was one of the chief drawbacks for Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2021.
The side completed a dreadful campaign in the world event Thursday with zero win to their name in the Super 12 stage.
The team reached Dhaka Friday evening in two different flights, while the coaching staff traveled to their respective homes.
Four cricketers chose to stay back in Dubai with family for another week.
Bangladesh went into the tournament with hopes of playing the semi-finals but as it happened, they failed to change their track record in the tournament – they are still winless in the main event.
In Group 1 of the Super 12s, Bangladesh finished at the bottom among the six teams.
The keen followers of Bangladesh cricket agree the side looked shattered when on the field.
The body language and the attitude only worsened with every defeat and the players missed out on proper leadership to inject in them encouragement and extra motivation.
In team sports, the unity is equally important off the field but perhaps this was one tournament in many years the Bangladesh cricketers were all on their own.
There are restrictions in place for the teams due to Covid-19; the teams simply cannot move out from the bio-secured bubble, and their movement is limited to certain areas in the hotel and in the field.
With the team losing, the exchange of emotions between the senior members of the team with other stakeholders through media, and the intensity of pressure from outside the dressing room meant the players were simply drained of their confidence in the month-long tour.
It had become important for Bangladesh cricketers to find some time to cool-off the tensions which could have come from arrangements in the team hotel and it could have been as simple as some hours spent together talking of everything but cricket.
But as heard from the closest members of the team, with no activities in place and none taking the lead to get something arranged, the players would mostly stick to their rooms and only meet during the breakfast or the team meetings.
There is argument that team management should have thought of ways of puncturing the pressure off the payers, but traditionally in the Bangladesh team, it had come from the players’ end.
For years former ODI captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza and the current ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal were in charge of such arrangements.
Team dinner to extent of cooking their own food, board and card games or simply chitchats over cup of tea and coffee would be the favorite ways of the cricketers to pass the time in the hotel.
“They simply had nothing to do. You look for ways to relieve the pressure through activities off the field but as we all saw the players’ body language and attitude in the field worsened with every game,” said a member close to the team to Dhaka Tribune requesting anonymity.
“It is not the first time Bangladesh had a bad outing but perhaps the first time there was no one to help the players out. We all saw the issues that happened off the field, which even involved wife of a cricketer directly criticizing other cricketers on social media. These events had only dented the team’s morale,” he added.
The silence in the team has been to such an extent that the players would not speak even in the team meetings.
The underperforming players thought it better to keep quiet as putting opinions on the table would return as a boomerang.
One can raise the question why the seniors in captain Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim or Shakib al Hasan did not come forward under such situation of the team.
It is widely established in the cricket fraternity that this trio simply don’t have the characteristics in them.
Shakib is known as a character who keeps to himself while Mahmudullah and Mushfiq are known to be active and fun only when they are performing in the field.
Alongside the cricketers, the Bangladesh team management with head coach Russell Domingo in the lead has also faced heavy criticism.
Fingers have been raised towards the coaching panel regarding their responsibility as the team failed and lost matches to disastrous mistakes on the field, such as dropping regulation catches.
High-up of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is soon expecting a team evaluation report from the coaching panel.
But it is understood that the decision makers of the board have already been verbally informed partially of the report.
The evaluation involves reports on individual cricketers – of their activities on and off the field and if they have been good listeners.
With Domingo remaining as the head coach for two more years Bangladesh’s next big tournament will be another T20 World Cup, in 2022 in Australia.
Domingo has already hinted of drawing a road map to the tournament starting now but doubt remains – the team were also convinced they had a strong build up to the tournament this year.
The result however, says the opposite.
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