Bangladesh's World Cup fiasco: Dissection of grounds

Bangladesh departed home for India on September 27 as the first team to take part in the World Cup. They repeatedly expressed their possibility to play in the semifinals but returned home as the eight side. The reasons for such debacle alongside other on and off the field issues are analyzed in a series of two parts here.

Strange Squad
Problem began with team selection. Bangladesh's World Cup squad was announced on September 25 as the last among the ten teams. They picked eight bowlers but seven batters only. It means there had no extra batter. In case any accident or off form of a batter, they had no alternative. They surprisingly picked five pacers for an event in subcontinent and two specialist spinners Sheikh Mahedi and Nasum Ahmed despite they have two full time regular Shakib and Miraz in the squad.

Tamim-Shakib conflict and opening problem
Bangladesh dropped Tamim Iqbal at the eleventh hour, more precisely; Tamim opted away amidst his conflict with Shakib. The BCB named an amateur opener Tanzid Tamim for World Cup despite they experimented with a number of players including Rony Talukder, Zakir Hasan, Saif Hasan and Anamul Haue Bijoy.

Long coaching panel
Bangladesh had the longest coaching panel with seven coach one technical director and a team director. Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha, pace bowling Coach Alan Donald, spinning Coach Rangana Herath, assistant Coach Nick Pothas, fielding Coach Nick Lee, trainer Shaun Dermot, technical adviser Sridharan Sriram and computer analyst Srinibashan made a large management queue. Beside them, Khaled Mahmud Sujon was added as the team director. Such a long coaching panel proved that 'too many cooks spoiled the broth'.

Vastly experienced
Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib have been playing together for 18 years in international cricket while Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Mehidy Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman have been playing together for 8 years.

All of Mahmudllah, Shakib and Mushfiq played five ODI World Cups while Mustafiz and Taskin played their 3rd World Cup and Miraz and Liton played for the second time. Such vast experiences brought nothing for Bangladesh.

Stubbornness on opener issue
Openers Liton Das scored 13 runs against Afghanistan, 76 against England, zero against New Zealand, 66 against India, 22 against South Africa, three against Netherlands, 45 against Pakistan, 23 against New Zealand and 36 against Australia.

Not bad at all. But his opening mate Tanzid Tamim's scores were five, one, 16, 51, 12, 15, 0, 9 and 36. Mehidy Miraz proved as very capable makeshift opener.

But Bangladesh think tanks were very much stubborn to stay with Tanzid Tamim all through the event. Did they try to prove that Tanzid is the best alternative of Tamim? Such stubbornness gave poor start to Bangladesh almost in every game.

Players treated as guinea pigs
Players became guinea pig as they changed batting order of all players but Liton and Tanzid in every match. Miraz was the mostly altered batter, who was seen to bat at three, four, seven and eight.

Tawhid Hridoy proved his caliber at four and five was sent at seven and eight, who got chance to bat at four again in the last match against Australia and scored 74 runs.

Despite his fabulous form Mahmudullah was not in the squad against Afghanistan and England, who had to bat on seven and eight in the subsequent matches. After much criticism, the veteran was promoted to five in last three matches.

The right arm was initially not in the BCB's plan for the World Cup and given rest for six months before the World Cup.

He however, coloured his comeback scoring 328 runs from seven matches with a century against South Africa and a fifty against Pakistan.
To be continue�