Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan was furious and slammed the cricketers and selectors after Bangladesh were whitewashed in the test series against West Indies. However, he later said those words came out in anger. He might have felt it would be wise to cheer up the cricketers before the upcoming New Zealand series. Perhaps that is why he invited three senior cricketers of the national team to his home in Gulshan last night.
One Day International (ODI) captain Tamim Iqbal, T-20 captain Mahmudullah and senior cricketer Mushfiqur Rahim went to the board president’s residence. However, it was not revealed whether the cricketers cheered up or not after talking with the BCB boss. Nazmul Hasan wanted to know the reasons behind the continuous failure of Bangladesh in test cricket from the players themselves.
Before meeting the three cricketers, Nazmul Hasan also sat with five former captains of Bangladesh cricket team in the evening. The agendas of both meetings were to analyse the reason behind the failure in the just-end test series against West Indies and to plan for the future, to know about everyone’s opinion regarding the upcoming New Zealand series.
The five former captains are affiliated with BCB. They are board directors Akram Khan, Naimur Rahman and Khaled Mahmud and selectors Minhajul Abedin and Habibul Bashar. BCB director Ismail Haider Mallik and BCB’s chief executive officer Nizam Uddin Chowdhury were also present at the meeting.
After the first meeting, Akram Khan said they mainly discussed the possible reasons behind the failure in the test series. “BCB president wanted to know why we are not being able to play up to the mark in test cricket. We also discussed about the upcoming New Zealand tour,” Akram said after the meeting.
Another former captain Naimur Rahman said Nazmul Hasan called them to analyse the performance of the national team. "He listened to our opinions regarding the poor performance of the national team in test cricket. We also discussed plans for the upcoming New Zealand series." The Bangladesh team will fly to New Zealand on 22 February. The squad will be declared on Friday.
However, Bangladesh will not play any test match this time on the New Zealand tour. There will be a three-match one-day series and three-match T-20 series after the 14-day quarantine period. The first one day match will be held in Dunedin on 20 March. On 23 and 26 March the second and third one-day match will be held in Christchurch and Wellington respectively. The T-20 matches will be held on 28 and 30 March and 1 April in Hamilton, Napier and Auckland respectively.
Meanwhile, players of the national cricket team have taken the COVID-19 vaccine in two groups at the Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital on Wednesday.