?Future is important but not at the cost of present?, says Habibul Bashar

[khalek]

Habibul Bashar could walk away right now and easily command a prime position on the pantheon of Bangladesh’s cricketing greats. He is our most capped Test player. He is our highest run scorer in both forms Tests and ODIs. He is our most successful skipper ever. And until very recently, he was our most consistent batting threat on the Test arena.

Today he finds himself on the sidelines. A lengthy off-patch led to his departure, first from the ODI side and recently from the Test team as well. Mention his name to cricket followers and you are bound to get a heated discussion on whether he has passed his prime and should retire or whether his unquestionable class will find a way through the slowing reflexes and changing coaching regime.


Read the article/interview

I feel very sad for him, he is such a dedicated player and captain. I wish he was still the captain of Bangladesh. May be then we could have become a good team with time

 

[shubhrayu]

Bangladesh have the greatest triumphs under his captaincy and that is beating India in the World Cup and beating Australia in the Natwest Tri series

 

[khalek]

Bangladesh have the greatest triumphs under his captaincy and that is beating India in the World Cup and beating Australia in the Natwest Tri series

Yeah and we were able to draw 4 and win 1 out of 18 test matches and win 29 out of 69 matches in ODIs under his captaincy, that means the team was actually doing good in both forms of the game and could have made a huge difference in the future.

What dumbheads BCB are!

 

[shubhrayu]

Now bangladesh has fallen down a lot

 

[.Mob]

And now it seems as if the Sri Lankan board are the best, but Attapatu did give the selectors a good roasting.

lol at all the Asian boards.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Bangladesh had two options.
Stick with the old guy who wasn't getting runs, and holding up a spot in the team than could have been taken up by a young guy.
Or go with a new skipper, aim for success in the 2011/2015 WCs, and sack the old guy.

I don't think they mad a bad decision. Maybe it is a bad one cause the team lacks experience - Ashraful, Mortaza and Razzak are now the most experienced players in the team. This works well in one way, but the batting lineup lacks the steady head needed. But Bashar wasn't getting runs, and this is the only way these guys will learn.

I think losig Dav Whatmore was the bigger issue. He was fabulous. They should have kept him on to 2011 at the least.

 

[khalek]

Bangladesh had two options.
Stick with the old guy who wasn't getting runs, and holding up a spot in the team than could have been taken up by a young guy.
Or go with a new skipper, aim for success in the 2011/2015 WCs, and sack the old guy.

I don't think they mad a bad decision. Maybe it is a bad one cause the team lacks experience - Ashraful, Mortaza and Razzak are now the most experienced players in the team. This works well in one way, but the batting lineup lacks the steady head needed. But Bashar wasn't getting runs, and this is the only way these guys will learn.

I think losig Dav Whatmore was the bigger issue. He was fabulous. They should have kept him on to 2011 at the least.

It's not the batting that is a problem, its the bowling. I don't think these inexperienced bowlers + Razzak and Mash are learning from their mistakes. I say even UAE or HK have better bowling line up than us but when Bashar was the captain, Bangladesh's bowling was pretty good because he made many good decisions in the field unlike this Ashraful who has made us lose so many series/tours badly already because of his crap decisions.

Yes I agree they should have kept Bashar until 2011 because he had the wish to lead the team and I think he could have been very successful in doing so but now I just hope Ashraful can improve his captaincy + bowlers will improve themselves till 2011 or else we will repeat the crap performance like in the 2003 world cup.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I've been watching our matches, and sorry, but I only remember our bowling failing once when defending 270ish against India, but our batting very regularly collapsing whether batting first or chasing.

I haven't seen Ashraful make bad decisions on the field, he's been active and doing the right things. He hasn't done anything Vaughan, Dhoni or Felming-esque, but he hasn't been bad. A few more years, and he'll be a very good captain. Now only if he starts taking more responsibility with the bat.

 

[India2011]

Stupid. Stupid, stupid stupid.

If Bangladesh had stuck with probably one of the most hard working cricketers of all time, then in a years time would have been able to draw, or even beat teams like England, Pakistan, New Zealand, and West Indies in the test arena.

Give Ashraful more time before shouldering him with the responsibility of captaincy.

 

[khalek]

I've been watching our matches, and sorry, but I only remember our bowling failing once when defending 270ish against India, but our batting very regularly collapsing whether batting first or chasing.

I haven't seen Ashraful make bad decisions on the field, he's been active and doing the right things. He hasn't done anything Vaughan, Dhoni or Felming-esque, but he hasn't been bad. A few more years, and he'll be a very good captain. Now only if he starts taking more responsibility with the bat.

Recently batting has definitely collapsed. We should have batted well in the match against Pak in Kitply Cup and then I remember Bangladesh vs SL in 2007, our bowling was good but batsmen disappointed, but if you look at the Pakistan ODI series and Asia Cup, it's mostly our bowling that has disappointed. Pakistan could get 300+ everytime they batted first. I know the pitch there is batsman friendly but we have seen Hong Kong and Zimbabwe restricting Pakistan to 270 so why can't we also do the same.

In Asia Cup, SL got a score of 357/9 where UAE were able to restrict them to 280 but I am not saying that only bowling is the big worry, both are big problems in Bangladesh cricket right now. We need to bat consistently and according to situation and also bowl in good line and length which is lacking in bowlers like Shahadat Hossain, Dolar Mahmud and Abdur Razzak also at times.

 

[angryangy]

I don't see the point of discarding him. I do see the point of making Mohammad Ashraful the captain, but no real sense in not selecting the best players.

 

[Cricketman]

Just like the Indians dropped our oldies from the ODI game. Dravid and such are probably better then Rohit Sharma, etc, but simply are dropped for being old.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I don't see the point of discarding him. I do see the point of making Mohammad Ashraful the captain, but no real sense in not selecting the best players.

Well, he was barely scoring anything. He was in horrible form, reflexes slowing in the field, had had to be dropped. Maybe not exculded 100%, but he was far from a certainty anymore.

 

[Chetan0304]

Just like the Indians dropped our oldies from the ODI game. Dravid and such are probably better then Rohit Sharma, etc, but simply are dropped for being old.

.Didn't' you see S Ganguly's form in the test Series?

@t he was a good captain & player any chance of his to come back? should read the interview..

 

[khalek]

.Didn't' you see S Ganguly's form in the test Series?

@t he was a good captain & player any chance of his to come back? should read the interview..

Well I think Ganguly is having hard time gaining his form back because you guys put too much pressure on him. He was dropped for 10 months in 2006, then he made a great comeback into the side by scoring 12 50s I believe. Then how on earth can you drop him again by saying he has low strike rate and running between the wicket inabilities? But dropping Dravid from ODIs was a very good decision but I think Rohit Sharma is no better.

@ Bashar's coming back, well he can be back in the side in tests but not as a captain. But I believe we don't need him just as a player anymore because he is out of touch with his bat.