Our final match against Pakistan in the Asia Cup where we have been given a ten-wicket bashing says it all: we are going nowhere with our cricketing future except earning misery for the country. I am not sure what we can do about it but then this almost 100 per cent defeat record is also something that we just cannot set aside and do nothing.
   One thing is sure though. This concerns the coach of the Bangladesh team. So long as Dav Whatmore was around, we lost most of the matches but we also managed one or two wins, however far in between and also showed potentials of winning a few more. Since Siddons took over, it has been just misery and defeat, some damn bad ones too. When Whatmore was around, the media had good things to say about the team. It was good then to read international cricket reporters talking of our potentials and excitement that some of the players was causing by their cricketing ability. Asharful was being talked about as a batsman who could reach great heights. Mashrafee was considered an all-rounder of world class. Now they are no better or no worse than ordinary club cricketers, the likes of whom can be found in their dozens in club cricket in Australia and England. Indian regional teams have better cricketers than those who now play in our national team. Our rating in the international press has also taken a nosedive.
   What makes me wonder is watching the way these cricketers behave in the field and out of it. With their collars turned upright, they behave as if they are no less than those that they play against.
   By one chance victory against Australia a few years ago, their body language is like they have been beating the world beaters regularly. I am no psychologist but I believe that in addition to their dearth of cricketing ability, their lack of humility is also one important reason for their now consistent record of defeats in international matches.
   Our cricket needs to be recast completely starting with the search of a better coach. The cricketers should all be sent back to the drawing board and treated as novices and made to earn their way back to playing for the national side. One way to improve their playing ability could be to use the carrot and stick policy –– take away from them their financial guarantee and link it to the performance in the field.
   These are, of course, suggested measures and I am not sure how effective these will be for I am afraid we do not have the potentials to develop international and world class cricketers on a regular basis that is necessary to sustain a Test-playing team.
   The lack of potentials is further aggravated by a cricketing infrastructure that is just too poor to produce the regular crop of cricketers needed for a side playing international cricket.
   Rashed Ahmed
   Gulshan, Dhaka