Cricket and our image problem!
Cricket Bangladesh was at a loss at the Lord’s ground of England; Bangladesh team proved no match to the English team. That was not what was unexpected or unknown to most. What stunned was the manner of losing the match in less than half its allotted time. It was not a pretty sight.
Cricket had always been a game of technique and temperament. While technique can be taught, temperament is in the mind, an attitude which has to be acquired and nurtured. A coach does teach or show technique but cannot give temperament like a dose of medicine.
Yes, some in the Bangladesh team showed some individual talent but most of them showed lack of technique and none showed the right temperament. If they were consistent, it was in not being able to stay at the crease long enough to score the runs expected of them. They were consistently repeating the same mistakes time and again. They played in cavalier and careless fashion unbecoming of test cricket; literally threw away their wickets without a thought or fight.
The result of the first test match was fully deserved. Yet the way that was achieved was not deserved, not after years of coaching and practice the team had. I do not know what coach Whatmore thinks. But if the team continues to be impervious to corrections, incapable of applying technique and acquiring a temperament of Test cricket it shall prove, if proof is still needed, Bangladesh cricket had got Test status without earning that. The team is not fit, not yet anyway (or if it ever will), to play Test cricket internationally.
Which brings back that nagging question no one wants to ask. Is further investment of time and effort worthwhile?
Husain
Dhaka
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The performance of the Bangladesh Cricket Team in the first ever cricket Test at headquarters of cricket at Lord’s was expected. It was pre-destined to be the slaughter of the lambs; and indeed it has been so. For anyone knowledgeable about cricketing conditions in England, this was an outcome that was very easily predictable. Cricket nations with far greater potentials than ours and with cricketers far better than ours have performed like novices in the cricketing conditions of England where the ball swings far more than anywhere else because of the weather.
In the old days, teams from Pakistan, India, and the New Zealand used to fall apart like ninepins although out of England they were not bad teams. It was only when the players of these teams started playing in England in the county cricket and were able to master the English weather, the tables were turned and the contest with England was not only close, the latter almost got into the habit of losing most of their encounters with foreign teams.
Bangladesh on this tour finds itself exactly in the same position as Pakistan, India and New Zealand then. In fact, on one occasion, New
Zealand team was bowled out for 26! Having said this, I must also stress the false hopes that our people raise, sometimes even our sports writers, about our cricketing future. When we beat a Zimbabwean Team that was playing with second and third stringers because of a strike by leading players, we made a great event out of it. This time after an innings defeat by a weakened county side, our cricketers did reasonably well against another county team and our sports scribes were so optimistic as to write that the English Team were re-thinking about our team’s potentials.
Even with the Lord’s Test, where Bangladesh has been drubbed and humiliated, ‘expert’ commentators on a private TV channel were using all the ‘ifs’ to save the Tigers from looking like rabbits!
There is another point that we also need to look into seriously. Although we started playing Test cricket only recently, our Test cricketers are not inexperienced. When we speak of Pakistan, India and New Zealand in the initials years, we must bear in mind they were playing too few Tests. When they were facing the veterans like the English or the Australians, their teams consisted of players with very little Test match experience. Although we are new to Test cricket, our team now has a good number of Test players who have over 30 plus Test matches under their belt. So we cannot use the argument we are an inexperienced Test side for we are not! This argument is now being used to cover the lack of potentials of our Test cricketers.
The question that should now be asked is, are we going to let our cricketers humiliate us like this? We have an accepted image problem and let not our Tigers add to that.
Shahjahan Ahmed
Dhaka
* * *
Along with thousands of Bangladeshi cricket fans, I was happy that the Bangladesh team won the Test and one-day series against Zimbabwe few months back. We, the fans were waiting for this moment since Bangladesh achieved the Test status.
However, the recent humiliating defeat against the England team in their first Test at Lord’s came as big shock for us. The match ended on the third day and the Bangladeshi players could not even able to score 200 runs in an innings, which is extremely shameful for us. It is probably out of our league to defeat such a mighty team like England, at least at this stage. But we still hope that in the next Test our cricketers will give full effort and will not humiliate us the way they did in the first Test.
Md Shafiul Alam Emon
London South Bank University, UK
* * *
There were two articles by Mahbub Ali Khan and Azad Majumdar (May 30) trying to justify the reasons for Bangladesh cricket debacle at Lord’s. All these excuses are but an ineffective soothing balm to our sorrow and disappointment. When all is said and done, the fact is that we lack in skill, judgements application and seriousness be it in batting or bowling. In all we could take only three English wickets at a plundering cost! Our batting can be summed up as a ‘hit and miss’ approach like the last few overs in a one-day game when you either ‘hit out or get out’; there being no other way out. The captain got out in the first innings to one of the worst shots that can be played; even by school boy cricket standard.
Whom are we trying to fool? May be ten years down the road something better may be expected. Meanwhile the lions are only mewing, and cannot roar because of the worst type of sore throat! I can foresee that the next Test was may not go beyond the third day; unless the fickle English weather intervenes! The only consolation I can offer is remembering the childhood school saying inculcated by our games teacher ‘Chins up, thumbs up, whether you loose or win’. The first Test can be summed up as ‘massacre of the innocents’.
Let us hope for the best in the next Test.
SA Mansoor
Gulshan, Dhaka
Reducing corruption
Reducing corruption is the biggest challenge to the government without any option to bypass. At a daylong seminar on ‘Corruption: Nature and Causes and its Remedies’ on May 29, the speakers observed that without the political will of the political parties, especially the two major parties, prevention of corruption would not be possible.
Abul Barakat, an economics professor of Dhaka University, said that bribery is a major form of corruption. ‘The level of corruption in the country has reached such a position that people cannot differentiate which is corruption and which is not’.
The Square Group chairman, Samson H Chowdhury, recommended amendment of laws to make public servants accountable. ‘If a file remains more than 24 hours before any government official, he or she must be disciplined.’
Comptroller and Auditor General Asif Ali laid emphasis on pre-audit of the government projects to check financial irregularities. ‘What we do is just post-auditing, when the money has already been spent. But we can save wastage or any undesirable spending if there is careful audit before execution of any new project,’ he suggested. Asif Ali said the secretaries
of the ministers are liable for pre-audit of the projects but they do not perform the audits carefully, which creates room for irregularities.
Justice Abdur Rouf recommended introduction of a system of submitting property statement of any public servant at the time of his/her appointment and keeping the information in the database of the public servants.
Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud said it is not possible to eradicate corruption if there is lack of strong political commitments. ‘Political parties will have to declare a war against corruption,’ he suggested.
According to one estimate, 75 percent of the Tk 2000 billion of foreign aid and grants received since independence has been siphoned off. Bribes paid to officials may be as high as Tk 160 million a year. It is estimated that corruption retards GDP growth by a full two per cent per year. It is now a matter of political will.
This is difficult since it is of course the politicians and their acolytes in the bureaucracy and other services such as the police who are the ultimate beneficiaries of most of the corruption.
It is evident and there is no doubt that corruption is a serious scourge on the nation, permits few to profit at the cost of the many, and directs poor image to Bangladesh. The question is whether the political parties are sincere to reduce corruption from administration and departmental activities. If their answer is assertive there should not be any difficulties.
Since RAB can identify terrorists in dark night even in jungles, no excuse is tenable on the part of anti-corruption officers to find out a corrupt person in daylight in a luxurious building. If they are helpless they should handover their files to RAB and the government should not waste more time to decide the matter.
People are not satisfied with catches of crossfire news only. People want to know how many catches are in ACC hands through RAB. And the ruling government has only 18 months time in hand to do this before coming to people for begging votes.
M Hoque
Dhaka
Distressing news
During the week between May 14 and 21 this year, I was in Bangladesh on a short business visit. In those seven days I got hit with two ‘hartals’ imposed by a political party, which conveniently got the opportunity to call a hartal over the murder of one of their leaders (every second person in the country is a ‘leader’).
Two river vessels sank drowning maybe three hundred people, the government raised the salary of its workers through another pay commission, and the poor people continued starving and malnourished as before (just one look at the emaciated faces and deep sunk eyes will show the ever present hunger).
The grotesque parody of development continued in the shape of shopping malls construction, while no sensible policies of long term job creation was visible anywhere.
When I returned to the UK, I saw on the news that a CNG driver had petrol poured over him and set on fire during the Saturday (May 21) hartal. He had ventured out to earn some money for his family, having been laid off ill the previous week. He died of his injuries, leaving behind his mother, wife, and three little girls, who will all now be destitute. The most appalling aspect was that one of the ‘leaders’ of the hartal party had the shameless cheek to try to attend the funeral of this poor man.
What jolted me was the realisation it could have been me in place of the CNG driver - since I had to take a taxi to get to the airport for my flight back home on that same day of hartal - and could have been the victim of mob action.
While the country burns, the Bangladesh cricket team turns up at Lord’s to play Test matches. It brought a perverse happiness to see the team hammered to oblivion, although individually I feel sorry for the players. Their performance shows the malnutrition that now pervades the whole country, resulting in stunted, feeble and weak population, including our ‘tiger’ cricketers.
Two days ago, a female Dhaka university student died after being knocked down by a speeding bus.
Incredibly, instead of saying combined prayers for the poor girl, the whole situation has been turned into an unbelievable demonstration of thug power by the government affiliated students and teachers in the university. They didn’t even hesitate to kick and beat up female students.
So now my sad observation is that Bangladesh will probably not make it. Its population and poverty will keep on increasing, health levels will decline, and people will grow ever smaller in size.
The law of the jungle already prevails, with a totally corrupt police force, judiciary, and government.
Till a saviour comes from heaven, there is no hope for the country.
A Ahmed
London, UK
FM’s successful US trip!
Foreign Minister Morshed Khan’s press interview shown on TV on May 29 night news was a treat to watch. He left his viewers in no doubt that he just returned from a very successful trip to Washington. What really inspired the viewers was to know that the US considers Bangladesh a ‘key ally’ and ‘unavoidable partner’ to bridge the gap that has been created between religious divides across the world.
He also unequivocally told the reporters that the US Government is ‘now clear that the Bangladesh Government has taken serious steps to improve law and order’. Taking a swipe at the opposition and their efforts to lobby Congressmen in Washington, the FM said that he even offered to take the opposition MP Suranjit Sengupta with him to the Congressmen, no doubt hinting how popular he is with them.
I just wish I could believe the FM. His habit of bragging makes me wonder who advises him. With a blank slate to show for his nearly four-year tenure, now exposed by the parliamentary Standing Committee on
Foreign Affairs, I guess he is fooling himself and those retaining him as FM. The self-acclaimed success of his visit hardly matches the openly hostile stance of the US Ambassador in Dhaka who has left no one in doubt that he believes Bangladesh is sliding towards fundamentalism.
Earlier, the FM in an interview in Washington said the US has an image problem in Bangladesh. Surely, the US has a problem but I am not so sure that it is our duty to point that out. In diplomacy, truth is often better not unspoken, not by Bangladesh that depends on goodwill of others to survive. Has the FM not understood the meaning of keeping his trap shut after single-handedly done our relations great damage by going off the railing in his ill-advised rampage against India a few months ago? We are still trying to recover from the damage that address has done us.
Rashed Ahmed
Gulshan, Dhaka
Big ‘no’ from Narsingdi
Political parties in Bangladesh, especially the big and powerful ones like the BNP and Awami League, have been practising unabated autocracy while nominating their respective candidates for different elections. In doing so none of these parties ever cared for the sentiments, likes or dislikes of the local people whom the nominated person, on being elected, was going to represent. The people of the concerned constituency, willingly or unwillingly, have so far been accepting such undemocratic practice by the political parties. Taking this advantage, the party high commands have been freely giving nominations to persons of their choice. On many occasions such nominated persons included godfathers, terrorists, black marketeers, smugglers, tax evaders and retired corrupt government servants who were hated by the local people. Then there were others who were not ‘sons of the soil’ as is the case with Khairul Kabir Khokon, who is otherwise a very good candidate from BNP for the coming June 22 by-election to the Narsingdi-1 constituency. That the local BNP leaders and workers from the Narsingdi-1 constituency, by staging a violent local hartal, have sent a strong signal to the BNP high command carries a great significance. Earlier the local BNP leaders and workers of Chittagong city sent a similar message to the BNP high command by not putting in their best in favour for Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin in the mayoral election, which resulted into his defeat.
In both cases the message is very loud and clear. Gone are those days when a party high command could, at its sweet will, give nomination to anybody it wished by ignoring the choice and sentiments of the local leaders and workers.
This is certainly a positive sign in our national politics. Godfathers, terrorists, black marketeers, smugglers, tax evaders, retired corrupt government servants and all fair-weathered birds, who manage to get nominations mostly by questionable means, will not have chances to join and pervert our national politics, if the party high commands are forced to take into consideration the choice and sentiments of the local leaders and workers.
Ashraf
Dhaka
RAB and crossfire
On May 31, another person was killed in the so-called RAB crossfire. There are different explanations of the killing of Abul Kalam Azad Sumon. Some say that RAB was looking for another miscreant with the same name but mistakenly killed Sumon. Others suggest that local ruling party leaders killed Sumon through RAB.
The point is that RAB is not doing what it is supposed to do. It seems that anybody can be killed at any time at the hands of RAB. Then what is the distinction between RAB and the street killers?
I know the government will not do anything. Already the ruling party leaders suggest that this is Bangladeshi type solution of crime problem.
Well I believe that people are more important than country. That is why we should urge foreign countries to intervene and help us to survive.
Jewel Ahmed
Basabo, Dhaka
DU unrest and student politics
The recent tragedy at Dhaka University and the turbulence it triggered simply points to the absolute irrationality and absurdity of the so called student politics.
A suspicious vehicular homicide should be investigated and the perpetrators punished. Instead one side makes the tragedy to destroy public property and the other makes it a celebration of police-protected hooliganism. The only solution to all this mess is the outlawing of party based politics on public campuses.
If students want to become politicians, they should graduate, get a job, and join the parent party.
ES
USA
* * *
The aftermath of a traffic accident in and around the university campus has always had a great consequence, be it in Dhaka or elsewhere. First, it upsets every thing in the campus, including regular classes and exam schedule. And then comes in politics over the death of an unfortunate student.
Shammi Akhtar Happy died on Saturday last, not even a full week since, but by now much of her memory has fast faded away. What instead is coming on the limelight is politics, politics of the two bitterly contending parties found always at daggers drawn on all national issues. The party in opposition is consistently on the look out for a pretext, as always, to go for hartal. This time the student faction of the AL has seized an opportunity and will go for hartal in the educational institutions nationwide and as expected the AL shall be able to drag it on to a nationwide hartal call soon at an opportune moment.
The members of the public on the other hand are baffled to see the quick developments now taking shape in the political arena. Nothing would have happened had it been a member of the public in place of Shammi Akhtar, a university student. The people have seen the AL all calm and placid when over 200 people died in each instance from a launch capsize at Aricha Ghat and from a nit wear factory collapse at Saver.
We are sensing another spate of hartals in the offing fraught with ominous days ahead. Hartals will obviously affect national life adversely, but it shall certainly not do any good to any political party. The people have rejected hartal and will certainly eject those who seek support through hartal calls.
Moni Khan
Dhania, Dhaka
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