Jan 29,2020
A file photo of Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan. — New Age photo
Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan on Wednesday expressed his annoyance over the senior players’ decision to suddenly skip series, which was unsettling the national team and forcing the selectors to make constant changes to team.
‘We need to come to a decision. If they suddenly make such call, it creates problem,’ Nazmul told reporters at his residence.
‘They need to inform us at least six months earlier because we can’t play a player all of a sudden. This is a tough year for us. We have a lot of series in abroad. We will play Tests and Twenty20s mostly and we face most of the problems in these formats.
‘We didn’t get Tamim [Iqbal] in two series, Sakib [al Hasan] is not available and now Mushfiq is also not playing. We didn’t expect that,’ he added.
Bangladesh have failed to field a full-strength side since their ICC World Cup campaign in England last year as star all-rounder Sakib al Hasan opted to skip the following tour in Sri Lanka for personal reasons in July.
The Tigers had to field a squad without Tamim Iqbal in the following home series against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in September and also in the series against India in November after the experienced opener skipped both the series citing personal reasons.
Along with Tamim, Bangladesh were forced to pick squads without Sakib in the India tour as he received a two-year ban with one-year suspended by the International Cricket Council for failing to report multiple corrupt approaches.
Things got even tougher for the BCB when Mushfiqur Rahim informed them that he was not willing to tour Pakistan for security concerns.
The decisions of the senior players had a huge negative impact on the Bangladesh team as they couldn’t showcase any significant performances during these series and in some occasions conceded massive embarrassments.
‘Just three days before India series, we heard that Sakib can’t play. This was a big setback. Getting a replacement of Sakib before India series was very tough. We have no replacement of him.
‘Tamim’s not touring India was another setback. We needed to find a new opener. We fielded Naim [Mohammad]. Now Tamim returned to the squad but Mushfiq said he wouldn’t go. Now we are facing problem with number four,’ he said.
‘If they tell us about these things earlier then we can figure out a solution. But it can’t be possible if they tell us all of a sudden. Now we will take a new player for one Test. But is it really possible? We need to play one player at least three Tests.
‘After that Mushfiq will play against Zimbabwe. After that we will be again in Pakistan for Test and we need to make change again. It is really difficult to make all those changes just before every game,’ he added.
Nazmul was, however, satisfied with the security Pakistan provided to Bangladesh team during the recent three-match Twenty20 international series and found no reason of not touring them again for their scheduled series.
Bangladesh will next play the first of the two-Test series on February 7-11 in Pakistan before touring the country for the third and final phase in April to play the lone one-day international match and the second Test.
‘We were not feeling relieved until we saw the security by our own eyes. We told them we will make decision after watching the Twenty20s. I think the kind of security they provided, we can’t ask for more,’ he said.
‘We have no reason of not touring Pakistan for Test series. Because it is also part of Test championship. We can’t give them walkover. I think we are going to play the Tests,’ he added.
