Didn’t know about players’ break from cricket before game against Ind, Pak: Papon
Cricfrenzy
|| Desk report ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan Papon said he didn’t know about the week-long holiday the players spent before the match against India and Pakistan during the World Cup.
After the Afghanistan match in the World Cup, Bangladesh had a break of seven days before the India match. At that time Bangladesh's head coach was Steve Rhodes, who permitted players for five-day break.
The BCB president believes that the holiday broke players concentration before the two must-win games for Bangladesh against India and Pakistan. Bangladesh lost the two must win games and failed to qualify for the semifinal. They lost to India by 28 runs before being crushed by 94-run to Pakistan.
"He gave five days holiday to the players before the match against India and Pakistan. I didn’t know about that. He can give rest but holiday? Every player went outside. They roamed around at different places. This thing breaks concentration," Papon said on Wednesday.
Papon believes there was a cultural mismatch between Rhodes and Bangladesh. He said things like that may be appropriate in his culture but not appropriate in Bangladesh. That’s why they decided to separate mutually.
"These things may be appropriate in his culture. There is no problem. But we think this doesn’t go with our culture. We talked about this. We decided mutually. We didn’t sack him. We discussed these together and decided that we can separate," Papon added.
