For the love of Tigers*****
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Mohammad Shahidul Islam
Recently, the good news for the nation is that the 160 million people have madly fallen in love with cricket. After 40 years of independence, we, from all walks of life, even above political interest, have finally agreed to tune together 'Cricket, Cricket, Bhalobashi Cricket'. At the same time, this cricket has been the dipstick of our daily happiness and unhappiness. Its success keeps everyone from ordinary labourer to the prime minister smiling. Its failure, makes us sad till the tigers succeed in the next match. Good to see, the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister have loved something (cricket) together for the first time. Hence, we should not let the time go to concentrate on tigers to discover a new bright nation in near future, which will be the power of sports. Here are 10 things for developing our cricket infrastructure and superstructure. One: Sports should be politics free and above the political interest, why not in cricket too. We find for last many years, the government tends to make BCB political with selecting a political personality for its presidency. We need to find an alternative method to select BCB president without any political belongingness. Other key staffs must be patriot, knowledgeable in cricket, skilled in English, and must have cultural and sport background and, of course leadership qualities. All engaged in cricket should be strictly responsible for success and failure. Two: An independent cricket department under the ministry should be formed with the name Cricket Research, Planning and Training Cell. The cell will be dedicated to explore the future of cricket in Bangladesh. The cell will be composed of veteran cricketers, cricket journalists, skilled organisers and researchers; and will work under the strict supervision of a skilled administrator. The cell will submit their proposal half yearly to BCB and BCB will consider the proposal for implementation. Three: There are hundreds of potential cricketers in this country. Now it is the time for exploring the talents through different events, which would be transparent and logical. There will be different layers to build up players instead of finding players. We need to build different structures that will start from under 10 to 19 years. Four: A real fighting team, with a spirit of never to be defeated, needs to be formed. All players will be extraordinarily talented, cool and passionate. Players with extra ordinary talent and abilities to play right role in right time should be selected. Five: There will be always three separate teams ready beyond the current national team, like A team, BCB team and under 19 team. These four teams will fight each other twice before any prestigious tournament and the outstanding performers will be chosen for forming the national team afresh. Six: The players of these four teams will be called for facing quiz test half yearly where the questions will be related to cricket technique, controlling mental pressure, patriotism and the questions like what are weak and strong points of players whom they will be facing in different tournaments. Seven: All players of these four teams will come under strict medical test to ascertain how fit they are for vigorous and powerful cricket. They need to face breath, chest and dental test to measure whether they maintain the disciplined life style and good habit. There will be no compromise about the health test report for even the world-class players. They will be advised to continue exact dietary for cricket. Eight: A pool of ex-players with yearly reshuffling needs to be formed to keep policy dialogues for the development of Bangladesh Cricket. They will also make constructive criticism of the players and the BCB. Nine: BCB will arrange occasional ground workshops for young cricketers where the classic and world-class batsmen and bowlers like Wasim Akram, Brian Lara, Sourav Ganguly, Steve Waugh will be invited to lecture and show their technique and skills. Ten: Extra ordinary talented players will be nourished carefully before the big match to avoid injury and damage. BCB will take care of their finance so that they will not be lavish in ordinary tournaments. Cricket has every power to brighten a nation. It has brightened the image of Bangladesh. This decent game can further put the nation to a glorified position in the world. And Bangladesh has all prospects for that. Unity we need for the betterment of Bangladesh in all respects, cricket will be the Ariel of this golden country. The writer can be reached at E-mail: shahidbpc@gmail.com
Recently, the good news for the nation is that the 160 million people have madly fallen in love with cricket. After 40 years of independence, we, from all walks of life, even above political interest, have finally agreed to tune together 'Cricket, Cricket, Bhalobashi Cricket'. At the same time, this cricket has been the dipstick of our daily happiness and unhappiness. Its success keeps everyone from ordinary labourer to the prime minister smiling. Its failure, makes us sad till the tigers succeed in the next match. Good to see, the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister have loved something (cricket) together for the first time. Hence, we should not let the time go to concentrate on tigers to discover a new bright nation in near future, which will be the power of sports. Here are 10 things for developing our cricket infrastructure and superstructure. One: Sports should be politics free and above the political interest, why not in cricket too. We find for last many years, the government tends to make BCB political with selecting a political personality for its presidency. We need to find an alternative method to select BCB president without any political belongingness. Other key staffs must be patriot, knowledgeable in cricket, skilled in English, and must have cultural and sport background and, of course leadership qualities. All engaged in cricket should be strictly responsible for success and failure. Two: An independent cricket department under the ministry should be formed with the name Cricket Research, Planning and Training Cell. The cell will be dedicated to explore the future of cricket in Bangladesh. The cell will be composed of veteran cricketers, cricket journalists, skilled organisers and researchers; and will work under the strict supervision of a skilled administrator. The cell will submit their proposal half yearly to BCB and BCB will consider the proposal for implementation. Three: There are hundreds of potential cricketers in this country. Now it is the time for exploring the talents through different events, which would be transparent and logical. There will be different layers to build up players instead of finding players. We need to build different structures that will start from under 10 to 19 years. Four: A real fighting team, with a spirit of never to be defeated, needs to be formed. All players will be extraordinarily talented, cool and passionate. Players with extra ordinary talent and abilities to play right role in right time should be selected. Five: There will be always three separate teams ready beyond the current national team, like A team, BCB team and under 19 team. These four teams will fight each other twice before any prestigious tournament and the outstanding performers will be chosen for forming the national team afresh. Six: The players of these four teams will be called for facing quiz test half yearly where the questions will be related to cricket technique, controlling mental pressure, patriotism and the questions like what are weak and strong points of players whom they will be facing in different tournaments. Seven: All players of these four teams will come under strict medical test to ascertain how fit they are for vigorous and powerful cricket. They need to face breath, chest and dental test to measure whether they maintain the disciplined life style and good habit. There will be no compromise about the health test report for even the world-class players. They will be advised to continue exact dietary for cricket. Eight: A pool of ex-players with yearly reshuffling needs to be formed to keep policy dialogues for the development of Bangladesh Cricket. They will also make constructive criticism of the players and the BCB. Nine: BCB will arrange occasional ground workshops for young cricketers where the classic and world-class batsmen and bowlers like Wasim Akram, Brian Lara, Sourav Ganguly, Steve Waugh will be invited to lecture and show their technique and skills. Ten: Extra ordinary talented players will be nourished carefully before the big match to avoid injury and damage. BCB will take care of their finance so that they will not be lavish in ordinary tournaments. Cricket has every power to brighten a nation. It has brightened the image of Bangladesh. This decent game can further put the nation to a glorified position in the world. And Bangladesh has all prospects for that. Unity we need for the betterment of Bangladesh in all respects, cricket will be the Ariel of this golden country. The writer can be reached at E-mail: shahidbpc@gmail.com