Habibul Bashar must go

It seems our very own kokhono bagh, kokhono bilai (sometimes tiger, sometimes cat) boys in the Caribbean just can't seem to turn that proverbial corner of winning two in a row, after whipping one of the big boys of world cricket. The less said about their self-destruction versus Ireland, and dismal batting against English bowling after the South Africa performance, the better.

Maybe they need a full time shrink, or maybe they need a less ethereal captain who can at least lead from the front, and score a few valuable runs despite looking as shaky as the incumbent usually does facing decent bowlers at this level. No matter what happens against West Indies, the fat lady's singing for Habibul Bashar, and local cricketing powers that need to hear that falsetto with the rest of us.

Habibul can't-bat-no-more Bashar and his stoned stiff brand of bland, lethargic and close-to-zero charisma cannot lead anybody anywhere good. Lack of talent, form, athleticism, and vision notwithstanding, just look at the complete lack of aggression in his field setting when aggression is precisely what is called for! His mind always seems to wandering places other than the ground he's standing on with a weirdly clerical air. The smiling automaton needs to prove that he has been doing more than just appease the big bosses in order to ride on the success of others in recent Bangladesh victories.

He won't because he can't. His contribution to those remarkable victories, with the sole exception of the freakishly unusual CNN catch, is not much more than just occupying space and time. That is just about as significant as well, you fill in the blank.

Dropping him is perhaps the much needed slap across the back of his nihilistic head to kick start his cricketing evolution preferably far away from our young, fearless, more often than not, can-do boys. Bad apples are a luxury we cannot afford anymore, because our young Tigers have come to symbolize the best of what we as a nation can achieve. Gone are the days of celebrating victory against the likes of Zimbabwe and Kenya with a lap of honor. We want consistent, back-to-back performances against the big boys of world cricket and see what happens. Bashar must go if only to spare all Bangladeshis the beijjoti (dishonour) of being lumped together with the same kind of gutless apologist for mediocrity.

His passionless, sterile brooding cannot possibly do our cricketing PR, albeit only within the commonwealth ghetto, any good anymore. Alok Kapali and Nafees Iqbal deserve to be back in the team on the basis of recent performance, talent, youth, and/or the fact that they can't do any worse than our once known as Mr. Fifty, and Shahriar Nafees.

Khaled Masud is still the better man behind the wickets, and his batting seems no less productive as the prematurely selected Mushfiqur Rahim's. A couple of more years in the Bangladesh A-side can only help his (Rahim) skills match his remarkable temperament and enthusiasm.

We also need paid professional selectors who tolerate neither traditional bias, nor an unhealthy fetish for their own complete lack of accountability for making awful selections. No, we haven't forgotten the Al-Shahriar, Mushfiq Babu, Hannan Sarkar and Mehrab Juniors from our not too distant past.

We need Australian-type selectors who are either professionally trained, or were talented enough cricketers to spot real talent at this level and not give up on the talented, impressionable young men without providing real support for improved performance in the near future. Such professional selectors can dramatically increase the odds of selecting a better team that can grow into a champion side we know they can be.

Until the money is actually spent developing a real first-class, professional, well-compensated and merchandised teams with aged-based junior selections playing on a wide variety of wickets, we'll have to depend on our young Tigers from the HP program selected on the basis of talent, technique and temperament. We can do our best in setting them up for success and hope that they'll learn from their mistakes from a inspirational young captain who can inspire them with his performance, growing wisdom, and body-language. Sakib Al-Hassan, Mohammad Ashraful, are you ready?