Thoughts on cricket
The two-page report on the Round Table on Cricket covered a fairly wide range of cricket related issues. This letter reflects my opinions, related to some of the matters discussed, along with some memories from the past which were not well covered in the discussions! The last time I played cricket, was way back in the 1960s in friendly inter-project games while in Khulna Newsprint Mills, which in those days had a regular cricket pitch!
We used to play often on a matting wicket, I still remember our college team playing with Chittagong Club way back in 1949, with Abdul Hafeez Kardar, the first Pakistan Captain, playing for them! Both the game and the lunch were a treat for us young college students! In that era most matches were between schools, colleges and the various faculties of Dhaka University. Here Dacca Medical College was probably the best team with Damal as captain. Next was possibly the SM Hall team in the early 1950s. I still fondly remember our Engineering College team touring to play with MCC (MC College, Sylhet); a sort of a cricket holiday, with visits to the tea gardens! Today my involvement in cricket is limited to watching it on TV!
On the subject of school cricket, Nirman School Cricket Tournament comes to mind. Mr. K.Z. Islam , a cricket enthusiast and a philanthropist, organised as well as financed the tournament. However, there was no talk about it, though the school cricket issue was mentioned a number of times during the round-table discussions. Is the Nirman School Cricket no longer being played? I also wonder why he was not invited to the round table discussion, given his keen interest in cricket?
Regarding the ICL exodus, I feel that BCB has probably made a mountain of a molehill and a direct collision was not perhaps a sober reaction. The
BCB response was as immature as probably our players' approach to playing in ICL. But then they are the wise men, upon whom the future(?) lies! After all human resources management is never a part-time matter!
The fact is that we not only lack natural talent (like Afridi), but our skills in nurturing potential talents leave much to be desired. Patience unfortunately is not one of BCB's strengths.
Today our Test status is at stake and one wonders if the BCB can deliver, despite talking of rainbows tomorrow, which unfortunately never comes!
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