Bangladesh sports officials should visit cadet colleges

The on-field confrontational body language of Mohammad Ashraful and Tamim Iqbal at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on 3 January should send a clear message to the cricket officials. These two cricketers are now playing against each other in the local league, but basically they play for the national team. As common citizens, we think playing for the national team requires immense “teamwork”. The attitude shown by Ashraful and Tamim didn’t reflect that they have actually been playing together for a long time. The incident suggests an appalling absence of team psychology between them.

Now, here’s an element to worry about. Since achieving the Test status, Bangladesh cricket squad hasn’t been showing any team mentality during international matches. Some time back, they were taken to a cantonment for making them psychologically strong, but nothing happened. The American basketball legend, Michael Jordan, once said: “Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.” This isn’t only true for basketball, but all games and sports. Another basketballer, John Wooden, commented: “Sports don’t build character; they reveal it.” So, what these two players have done on that day is they revealed their mentality – a mentality that is far from winning a match like a gentleman with a firm determination. The years of playing together hasn’t taught them anything.

Having said that, it wouldn’t be wrong to opine that the “cricketers” only lack the sense of team mentality. This is equally true for all games and sports in Bangladesh. People talk about them as cricket and football are in the limelight and considerable money is spent on these two games.

The need of the hour is to come out of this mentality and perform like real players. And Bangladesh badly needs a big players’ line up. A talent hunt programme was run a few years ago, but after that there’s any such activity for finding out professional players. This writer has appealed to Bangladesh Cricket Board high officials on several occasions to visit cadet colleges in order to handpick some cricketers if they find them worthy enough. But before that, the sports officials (not only cricket and football) need to visit the colleges. Each cadet college has its own games and sports competition among its houses (halls of residence). Apart from that, the governing body of cadet colleges organizes inter-cadet college sports meets (ICCSMs) in every three years. The BCB officials did promise to send a team to watch an ICCSM, but it seems they have put the visit off till doomsday.

It’s possible to get top class players from these colleges. These boys start their lives at the age of twelve. By the time they are fifteen, they become physically hardened and mentally strong to withstand any challenge or both on the field as well as in education. They are trained to win obstacles; they are taught to be ambitious and be the number-one in every arena. The prime focus at these colleges is education, but their performance in games and sports is equally good. This writer had the opportunity to witness their performances on many occasions. These boys play “to win”, “to be the champion”. Having the “willpower” to win, they don’t play for fun.

Education is very important to win matches, to perform in the international arena. They enter these institutions through a tough test that requires very high IQ. A class-seven boy learns to do research on games and sports; they learn to formulate strategies to win at a very tender age. And another aspect of their character is that they won’t ever undermine and teammate. To them, teammates are more than brothers.

When these cadets graduate and pass out from their institutions, their skills in games and sports are completely lost. It’s quite disquieting to see that their skills are unutilised at the national level. Yes, the majority of them wouldn’t agree to become a professional player. Only a few would show interest. But they need to be approached first. And before that, the officials need to understand the level of their skills. If we can find, say, five interested persons from ten colleges, it should be more than enough.

The cadet college authorities also need to cooperate. They would have to create an atmosphere for the cadets to join the sports arena at the national level. They need to imbue realization among the cadets that it’s possible to be a professional cricketer or a footballer. For a start, the governing body of cadet colleges can form a combined team in each game and invite the national teams to play against the cadets. This would be a great way to assess the ability of these boys. If they are found not worthy, throw the idea away in the bin. But we need to know what these cadets have learnt on their campuses, whether they can break the barriers.

If they were brought into the games and sports, the cadet colleges would also have an opportunity show their value-addition even more.