BCB chief mulls inducting new blood ahead of WC 2019
He hints at taking decision on Mash captaincy in next meeting
Sports Reporter
As the expectation from the Bangladesh cricket team gets higher following their tremendous performance, the BCB mulls of brining up some drastic changes to the team in a bid to make the 2019 World Cup campaign a successful one.
Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha also discusses with BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon to how they could make the campaign successful one from the 2015 World Cup in which they reached the quarterfinal stage for the first time.
While Papon met the press for the first time yesterday after the ICC Champions Trophy, he made a clear indication that they would inject some new bloods to the team, keeping the next World Cup in the mind. The board however also keeps the matter of captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in mind, according to Papon as he said the board would discuss about his future in the next executive committee meeting.
Papons statement clearly indicated that Mashrafe would no longer be an automatic choice with the board gearing up for the 2019 World Cup.
There was a question about the future of Mashrafe as far as the T20 cricket is concerned. We werent sure if he could play the World T20 in 2020. We straightway talked to Mashrafe about his future after which he announced his retirement from T20. But we never forced him, we just discussed with him. But what matters is that we started discussing about the process because we focused onto doing well in the global event, Papon said.
The BCB chief however didnt clearly indicate whether they want Mashrafe as captain or player for 2019 World Cup.
When asked, he said, There is no discussion about it. Well discuss the matter in our next board meeting.
It should be noted that when president earlier revealed that they would discuss about Mashrafes fate for the T20 cricket, the captain instantly retired from the format. There was huge uproar regarding Mashrafes retirement from the T20 cricket but the Papon-led board was unfazed by the fans emotion.
How Mashrafe would react about Papons statement this time, is now a matter for fact.
But the president was logical about his stance as he explained clearly why they want some new bloods right now in the team.
After Bangladesh went through a bad phase in the international cricket in 2013 and 2014, we took some steps to induct fresh faces in the team. That was a risky decision but that paid off nicely you know, Papon said.
We introduced split captaincy with giving Mashrafe the charge for the ODI and T20 side. And it worked also. The result itself said how it nicely worked. But we have to give the credit to the new players who came in and made instant impact.
Soumya Sarkar was the revelation in the 2015 World Cup. He played a major role in helping us to win the series against South Africa. Mustafizur Rahman gave us success against India. Thanks to Mosaddek Hossain Saikat we won Test against Sri Lanka at Lankas own den. Mehedi Hasan Miraj won us series against England. What was important was to give them exposure in the right time and we did that superbly. That was the reason behind our success.
Now there were many good players in the pipeline. If we dont give them chance to make impact when they will be experienced, Papon raised a question.
So its the high time to make them experienced ahead of the 2019 World Cup. That doesnt mean that well axe someone but if we dont give them exposure now it will be bad for us. Because when our six or seven players will retire how well fill the void. So the youngsters need exposure right now.
