Cricketers need to know when to stop

Khaled Mahmud Sujon, a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) believes that the senior players should have a clear plan for their retirement in order to make way for the young players.

According to him, unfortunately, this culture is yet to be grown in this country as the number of cricketers in Bangladesh who retire from the field is a handful.

Mahmud is one of the few who could retire from the ground. Citing the example of his own career, the former captain said the senior cricketers have to understand when the time is over.

His comment came in the wake of the incident of senior cricketer Mahmudullah Riyad who was recently dropped from the Asia Cup team. The 37-year-old cricket had hardly any chance to return to the national team as the team management has enough options at their disposal to replace Mahmudullah.

It is understood, Mahmudullah was offered twice to retire from the ground but the seasoned campaigner refused it, saying he would take the challenge of making a comeback to the national team.

Mahmudullah's place was questionable for a long time as his reflexes and performance saw a massive decline due to his age-related issue. It's not that the players didn't play at this age but every player who is playing at this age maintained their fitness and performance.

"I had (the courage to retire) and I had retired. I understood, but now my time is over. If I don't leave, how will new players come? It has to be decided by the cricketers that when is the right time to say goodbye," Mahmud said here today.

"It's very difficult (to retire from cricket). I too had passed that moment. But I had to leave. We were not used to getting as much money as the current crops of cricketers getting. We played for very little money. But then it was our love. We were able to leave that. I don't know why the cricketers of this generation don't want to leave. Why don't they have the courage to leave," he questioned.

 Mahmud believes everyone should accept reality and stop at some point.

"At some point, you have to quit. Akram (Khan) bhai left, Nannu bhai (Minhajul Abedin Nannu) was the best batsman in Bangladesh, he also left. Habibul Bashar, once called Mr Fifty, who captained Bangladesh and scored many runs and he also left.'

English fast bowler Stuart Broad announced his retirement during the Ashes a few days ago when he was in his form of life.

Citing his example, Mahmud said: "If he wanted, he could have played more, but he called it a time."

"Couldn't Stuart Broad still have played? So why did he leave? That's my point. You have to know when to stop. I am saying with respect to the cricketers. I think it is their personal matter. We cannot force anyone. None of us can tell that you're old. None of us have the right to say this."

If someone wants to continue playing without retiring at the right time, Mahmud also urged them to face the bitter experience of being dropped.

"If they think, I should play more, I can play for two or three years more, ok No problem. But then you can't point fingers at others if you get axed."

Mahmud, also the chairman of Game Development, thinks even if all the senior cricketers leave the game, Bangladesh cricket will move forward properly.

"Mushfiqur has left the T20 format. Tamim has also left and everyone would have to leave in this way. But that doesn't mean, the cricket in this country will stop when they will retire one by one. We can't stop dreaming. We have to bring new cricketers. We have a game development department, whose responsibility is to create a pipeline of cricketers. It must not be forgotten that Tamim, Mushfiqur, and Mahmudullah also came from that pipeline."