'Watching local games crucial'

Amid the buzz surrounding limited-overs cricket, the importance of Bangladesh improving in Test cricket somehow found a space in a Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) forum when technical committee members brought it to the notice of BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

While briefing the media about the outcome of the meeting, Papon talked about many issues from improvement in Test cricket to the current burning topic regarding the revamp of the selection panel.

“We gave our suggestions about how we can improve our performance in the longer-version, playing more Tests and longer-version cricket because it's a very important issue,” said former national cricketer Athar Ali Khan, who is a member of the technical committee.

The allegation against poor umpiring in the domestic leagues was another major issue discussed while Papon shared ideas with technical committee members Jahangir Shah Badshah, Athar, ASM Faruque, Ishtiaque Ahmed, Mainul Haque and Shafique-ul Huque Heera.

Everyone however was eager to know about the stance of the BCB president, who appeared before the media after a long gap, on the selection committee revamp proposal from the working committee. Interestingly, Papon believed that the existing system and the selectors have been doing a good job but still they felt the need for change to make it 'smoother'.

Papon informed that the final decision regarding the post of chief selector was yet to be taken and he did not get any proposal regarding the inclusion of the team manager to the selection panel. He however said that the one point that he and the technical committee members agree on is that the coach should be in the selection panel.

“Coach was earlier also in the selection panel and we are just now going to re-introduce it,” said Papon.  He also stressed on an active role for the coach in the selection panel, which means he will be required to watch domestic competitions to scout new talent and take a proper decision when it comes to selecting a new player for the national team.

“It's not necessary for a coach to see all the domestic matches but it would be a responsibility for him to watch domestic matches like the selectors,” he added.

When his attention was drawn to the long vacations taken by the national coach Chandika Hathurusingha, which saw him missing the last BPL matches and now the current Dhaka Premier League matches, Papon said: “How can you tell him [to stay longer periods in Bangladesh] if he is not in the selection team and to make sure it will not continue we want to include him.”

The BCB boss said that the selectors will pick the teams but they want to create a system where the ultimate decision will be taken under the leadership of cricket operations committee chairman before it comes to the president for approval. 

“We however will take the best decision in the board meeting after examining everything,” he promised, adding that it was in the media that he saw problems and not inside his board.

The poor and reportedly partial umpiring appeared as a dangerous malady in domestic cricket from the second-division league to the premier league and Papon said that there was no scope to tolerate this kind of malpractice, which if left unchecked can destroy the country's progress.