‘Players development is more important than winning the game’
Photo- CF
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh High Performance (HP) head coach Simon Helmut said he emphasized on more players development rather than winning the game as he is eying to get long term result.
His comment came in the wake of Bangladesh A’s disastrous result against Afghanistan A in the recently concluded series.
He said it is more important to be developed at this stage rather than winning the game.
According to him “We want to win but we need to keep developing players, giving players opportunities and putting them in pressure situations so when they reach the national side they will be conditioned, ready and prepared.”
Bangladesh A lost the two-match four-day series by 1-0 before they settled for a 2-2 draw in the five-match one-day series with lot of hardship.
They however could have lost the one-day series had the fourth match not washed out due to rain.
While Bangladesh A team was being humiliated, the BCB XI, mostly formed with the A team players had decent outing in Mini Ranji Trophy in India. They moved to the semifinal in the tournament.
“I think there is a combination of reasons why we didn't perform well against Afghan A, firstly some of our experienced players didn't perform, some of our senior players. Then we had to give opportunities to younger and less experienced players,” Helmut said here on Saturday.
“And we saw when you do that, what can happen. Secondly it’s a very very good thing for Bangladesh cricket that we had matches in India. National team was away, there is match in India and an A series here. So, obviously our depth was tested and it’s a very good reminder that we should keep generating new players in all areas of the game and in all formats to make sure that we can perform at the highest level.”
Helmut said developing the players is more important than winning the game at this level.
“My philosophy is to develop players and Bangladesh cricket needs lots of developed players from the Academy, HP and A team program. Yes, we want to win and it’s important that we have a winning habit and culture but its not always the most important thing. The most important part is that we develop players so that when they reach the national side then they can be successful and we can be successful as a country,” he remarked.
“It will be exciting for the players who haven’t played before. Some guys missed out on opportunities and some of them did play. I think we had more than dozen HP players playing, over in India series at first we had six and next we had eight players in the second. So, actually, we had 14 players were actually involved in A series in some way. Obviously the under 23 series will have more concentrated HP players. And against Sri Lanka we will good, just like Afghanistan A were good. We have to perform very good. Let me say, performance individually and collectively and the brand of cricket that we play that's the most important thing.”
