Our cricket
While the cricket authorities search for a coach, the turbulent phase of the national cricket team continues. Being an ardent fan of cricket since Akram Khan's men trounced Kenya in the ICC trophy final, I want to express my opinions. Why does our team continuously fail to keep up the flicker of their occasional dazzling performances? The average age of our team, which faced the Sri Lankans in ODIs, is around 20. At this stage, they seem bright prospects, a bunch of young guns expected to learn from their mistakes. However, the average age of the team five years ago was also slightly over 20. Now, where on earth's face are those players? The harsh truth is that most of them have disappointed after their early success, leading to an inevitable generation gap. Al Shahriar, Hannan and Kapali have all appeared prodigiously talented at first, but their lack of responsibility made them wayward performers. Naturally, Bangladesh lack reliable batsmen in the age range of 26-30, the zenith of every batsman's career when maturity complements talent. It is now hard to imagine that once our middle order comprised dependable performers like Akram, Bulbul, Naimur and Minhazul. Hence, it comes as no surprise that Bangladesh experimented with more than a dozen opening pairs in the past five years that resulted in no success. Forget Australia and Sri Lanka , even Kenya has veterans like Tikolo, Odoyo and Shah who can lend their vast experience to guide the youngsters. Unfortunately, this deficiency is one that has no immediate solution. Complacency is a problem dominant at both team and personal levels. Being thirsty for success, they are carried away when they pull off a win over any heavyweight. In the last World Cup, when Bangladesh trounced South Africa, an elated Basher bragged, “We hope to reach the semifinals.” For God's sake, they went to super-six with no bonus points, were thrashed in their first two matches and had to win all three remaining games to have a shot at the semifinals. They took their win against Ireland for granted. When Trent Johnson uprooted Basher's stamp, he was wrenched cruelly from his dreams and Bangladesh has not won an ODI since. Optimism is a virtue, but we expect them to set realistic goals for themselves. Bangladeshi batsmen are yet to learn how to resist crumbling under pressure. Our batsmen can take a leaf out of the book of their own teammates, the bowlers. The bowlers have always used their limited resources to optimum output.
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