Leg spinners rue for lack of opportunities
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||CF Correspondent||
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has been inconsistent with their approach to leg-spinners, as they have continuously given them least priority in the domestic scene while claiming to be desperate to find and nurture leg-spinners.
The BCB’s eagerness in finding and playing leg-spinners increased in folds after Bangladesh suffered a shock home Test defeat against newcomers Afghanistan last year, a defeat that shook the country’s cricket body to the core.
Ace Afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan did the maximum damage in that match, taking 11 wickets in two innings, exposing Bangladesh batsmen’s vulnerability against wrist spinners.
To help the batters tackle leg-spin better, the BCB enforced some new rules in domestic cricket, instructing every team in the first-class competition National Cricket League to field at least one leg-spinner and warned that strong measures would be taken if they don’t follow this instruction.
The BCB kept to their word, dismissing Rangpur division coach Masud Parvez and Dhaka division coach Jahangir Alam after both of them didn’t pick a leg-spinner in their playing XI in their round two matches.
Masud overlooked Fardeen Hasan and Rishad Hossain while Jahangir didn’t pick Jubair Hossain in their respective teams.
Not only in longer version, the BCB president Nazmul Hasan said that teams in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League will also have to adhere to the leg-spinner policy.
But as soon as the tournament got underway the rule was ignored by every team despite all the teams being owned by the board and there were zero repercussions for it.
National leg spinner Aminul Islam did not hide his disappointment to Cricfrenzy for not being able to feature regularly.
‘’It is good that I get teams to play but I feel bad not to play in all matches, I was with every team of the board expect national team.i had got few opportunities to play in all the competition.
‘’In BPL I played in two matches. Last year Premier league I played only three matches. I did not play any game for A team and played only one game in the emerging Asia cup. In the SA games I played three matches.
‘’I feel bad not to play regularly. I played four matches for my team in the national league. I could not play two games as I was selected in the merging Asia cup. I have talked with our Chattogram team about this,’’ said Biplob.
It is good that the board has pressure on the team to play leg spinner. We are not selected in the team as they do not believe in us. If we do not play it is bad for us and how can we prove our self as well
Another leg spinner Nur Hossain opined that they lose confidence warming the bench for most part of the season.
‘’We have to struggle very hard. Because leg spinners will be a little expensive, might give runs more but then again at the crucial time they can take two-three wickets. In our country, people see after the match who gave the most runs in the 10 overs. Leg spin is different. Yes, if you can keep the line length right from the start, then you will give less run. This trustworthiness is less in our country. You have to believe, have to give chance,’’ said Munna.
‘’If I played well today but in the next match I played badly, then management started to talk about many things. Because of this, the cricketers become emotionally frustrated. They started to think that at any moment they can be left out from the team. Confidence diminishes - in that case, that is the reason I would say the opportunity should be given more. If one match goes bad then they should have the opportunity to play the next one so that they could correct their mistakes,’’ he said.
‘’We who are the leg-spinners need to be consistent in performance. Because if I played bad today, then play bad tomorrow, the team will not give any more chance in this case. One match can be imperfect, but we have to try to make most the match well. ‘’We can see other countries leg spinners bowling well regularly. One or two matches can get worsen but our country will not accept it,’’ he adds.
Out of favour Jubair Hossain said that he still has the confidence that if he is able to play regularly he can claim his place in the national team.
‘’I hope we will have premier league matches sooner and start our season with it as well. If I get the opportunity at that time I will try to do well at that time. If I can play for one year I believe I can make a comeback.
‘’My main plan is to play one-year regularly and perform I am confident that I can make a comeback at the highest level,’’ said Jubair.
I am working on my lacking and the people who used to guide me in my early days especially Shahin Bhai and senior players always encouraged me,’’ he said.
Former leg spinner Wahidul Gani said that leg spinner needs to be groomed and for that everyone must show patience.
Leg spinners need to be groomed and they must be given time.
‘’The National League is a place where cricket happens for a longer period of time. A boy gets much enough time to bowl. And since it is our own tournament, win or loss doesn't matter, a player's improvement is what matters,’’ said Wahidul.
‘’I think it is as the right place where we can make right-handed wrist spinners. We have a lot of leg spinners here at the junior level but the problem is we don't want them to play. Don't give them a chance. If we give them the opportunity, then we might see how much qualified they are. As we have seen in the scenario of Biplob,’’ he said.
