Opportunity Lost

01a2Long before ICC World Cup 2015 started I thought Melbourne should be the right place for the base camp of the tigers. Bangladesh has to beat one of the four stronger teams from among Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England for a possible berth in the quarterfinal. Bangladesh was to play Australia at lightening quick Gabba Brisbane. Practically Bangladesh had no chance to get anything out of it if the match was played. Bangladesh will play red hot New Zealand at Hamilton .Almost impossible to make any upset. This narrowed the possibilities to Sri Lanka and England .Bangladesh played and lost to Sri Lanka badly at MCG Melbourne. If Bangladesh came to Melbourne and spent time here adjusting to pace and bounce of Victorian wickets, that could put them in a better stead at MCG. Bangladesh fielded and bowled very poorly at MCG.

01aRingwood Cricket Club where Bangladesh Cricket legend Aminul Islam Bulbul used to play and where this writer is Golden Ram agreed to offer its ground and all facilities free of cost for practice .RCC is a leading club in Victorian Premiere Cricket. They readily accepted my proposal for practice matches .It were possible if instead of making Brisbane the base camp Bangladesh would have chosen Melbourne for that. But that opportunity was not availed though this writer made written proposal to BCB through its CEO on time. It was a golden opportunity lost as after the tournament started teams could only practice under ICC arrangements. BCB did not do any homework. BCB officails on pleasure trip to Australia spending BCB money (US$ 3000 each) appeared little bothered whether the team is prepared well or not for the match. Bangladesh appeared at MCG for the first time and if it fails to qualify for the quarter final may not get another opportunity for appearing at MCG in the foreseeable future.

01a3Today 28 February 2015 was the Club Presidents lunch of our club. We invited Aminul Islam Bulbul and Sajjadul Alam Bobby on the occasion. Many dignitaries of Cricket Australia, Federal MP, Mayor and others were here .Our team was playing against Frankston Peninsula and Australia was playing against New Zealand on the day. Bobby was apparently fascinated at picturesque view of the ground, green top wicket, greeneries around. He had useful discussion with very friendly club officails and Cricket Australia executives I had to admire the deep thought vision of Bobby about the long term capacity development of Bangladesh cricket at every segment .Cricket Victoria is eager and willing . But unless we get positive response from BCB even I will hesitate to get involved.
Bangladesh was beaten convincingly at MCG on Thursday. One of the prime reasons of the defeat was extremely poor fielding and bad bowling .Naturally one expected that the team would have serious fielding session on the following day .Instead the team was busy socializing and attending to public invitation .Mashrafee picked up a brawl unnecessarily with a disgruntled Bangladesh fan at Huntingdale Mosque. Wonder who maintains discipline of the team? Can a headmaster teach the student is he himself does not practice what he wants to teach?
The team has to play three more matches and must win at least two to have any realistic chance of scrapping through. Scotland ,New Zealand and England .None of the matches will be easy .No one will be extra hospitable to Bangladesh .Team Chemistry did not look good at MCG . Several rumors are floating around, bad people are gossiping. Hope these do not cast any dark shadow over the team. For the longer term we must put in our best efforts to qualify for the business round. Opportunities must not be let gone a begging .

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