'No one cares for local cricket'

The top brass of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is only focusing on international cricket but neglecting the local cricket, which is one of the reasons behind the Tigers’ shock defeat against Scotland, said former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud Pilot.

Mashud, who contested in the recently concluded election of the board directors of the BCB where he lost to Shawpon Chowdhury, told The Business Post that he is unpopular for speaking about the harsh reality.

A new venue inside the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium called the ‘Academy Ground’, was used for the first time for a first-class match between Sylhet division and Dhaka division in the 23rd National Cricket League.

21 wickets fell on the opening day’s play at that ground, and the four-day match ended in just two days and 17 balls which Dhaka won by seven wickets.

Mashud had a fairly good experience of playing in the NCL and knows some players from both teams. He thinks that the cricketers are not to blame for such a poor show. Rather, the wicket might not be ideal.

“In both the teams, there are few very experienced cricketers, some are present national team players. They can’t be in such a poor form that a four-day game ends in just two days. There must be something wrong with the wicket. As it’s a new ground, there must be some trial runs before hosting a first-class match,” said the former captain.

Sylhet has three cricketers who are regulars in the Bangladesh Test side- Abu Jayeed Chowdhury, Khaled Ahmed, and Ebadat Hossain, along with two seasoned campaigners Alok Kapali and Enamul Haque Jr. Dhaka is led by Test opener Saif Hasan and he has players like Shuvagata Hom and Nazmul Islam on his side.

Another ground at the same venue, which is the main ground of SICS, hosted the matches between Bangladesh Under-19 and Afghanistan Under-19 team where the batsmen struggled.

In the five youth One-day internationals, the highest team total was 222, whereas most innings were around 150 runs.

In the only four-day match of the tour, the batsmen also struggled as 37 wickets have fallen, with only 724 runs scored in four innings, which is below 200 runs per innings on an average.

The wicket of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium of Mirpur received some harsh criticism from the visiting Australia and New Zealand cricketers for its unplayable nature though the T20 skipper Mahmudullah Riyad tagged it as home advantage.

Bangladesh lost their first game in the ICC T20 World Cup against Scotland by six runs, where the batsmen’s inability was clear as they struggled to middle the ball.

Mashud feels that if the infrastructure is not right, the scenario will not change.

“If you don’t fix the infrastructure, nothing will change. As you see, all the BCB directors and officials are now heading to the UAE to see the World Cup, but no one is watching the NCL. Only the required match officials and one selector are there. This tournament has been going on for so many years. But has there been any report by the BCB about findings from this NCL? Did anyone evaluate what were the findings from this tournament or any tournament like school cricket, that these are the outcomes from this project? The answer is no,” he told The Business Post.

“The tournaments like NCL, BCL, or school cricket are organised just like some routine job, a formality. A budget is there, and the board has to spend it, that’s all. No one cares about the standard because everybody is after international cricket. No one cares for local cricket,” he added.

Mashud feels that domestic cricket should be played on standard wickets that match the international scenario so the players can do well in the next level. Otherwise, things will be difficult in the coming days.

“Scotland has beaten us, Ireland has beaten us, even Afghanistan has beaten us within their short presence in international cricket. If these things continue, then our cricket will be in great danger. We have all the necessary ingredients, our government and the people both have immense love for cricket, but due to some wrong people at key places, the players cannot deliver to their full potential,” he said.