I am responsible for the mishap in World Cup: Mashrafe
BCB- Roton Gomes
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza took the onus of his side’s calamitous outing in the World Cup, stating that he failed to lead the side from the front what as a captain he should do.
Given Bangladesh’s performance with white-ball cricket, there was high hope that they would seal the semifinal spot.
Bangladesh made a bright start to their sixth participation in the biggest cricketing extravaganza by recording a 21-run win over mighty South Africa but they simply couldn’t keep up the pace. They have lost to New Zealand and England before bouncing back with victory over West Indies and Afghanistan to make them well placed for the semifinal spot.
But they failed to show a proper desperation to win the match against India while they were clearly thumped against Pakistan, a team against which they were favourite to win.
On personal front though it was the tournament to savour for the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin or Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe was blamed to not to lead the side from the front. He took just one wicket in eight games that sparked a widespread criticism.
Mashrafe however said he is taking the blame for the debacle.
“Being the captain I have to shoulder all the expectations from the team. All the mishaps that happened I have to take the responsibility,” he said after returning to the country on Sunday.
“This is usual if someone else was in my place he would also said this. Discussions about my performance around the world is common, this happens and it will happen. Overall if some things were with us we could have showed better performance.”
“With the expectation that I went with, I am disappointed. In the World Cup I was not able to fulfill my expectations. We were not able to go to the semifinals but overall I think with the playing style there was positive direction but at the same time as the team expectation was high what turned out to be very disappointing.”
Mashrafe also said if they got some favour of luck the situation could have been different.
“As I said, the match against India was our officially chance to move to semifinals. But the consistency of batting or bowling was not up to the mark except Shakib. At the same time I think there were some particular periods where favour of luck was needed that also didn’t happen. Rain poured for one week which caused us not to play and other teams got the benefit from it,” he said.
The captain believed the loss in the match against Pakistan took the gloss off from their entire performance.
“I am sure the general people and everyone expected us to be in 4th place. We could have stayed in 5 th place if we won the game against Pakistan. But at the same time if we cannot stay at the 4th position there is no meaning for this World Cup.”
