From Toddlers to Early Teens

Bangladesh domestic cricket made some significant progress in 2006 but its is yet no way near the international standard. The national team's performance largely depends on the standard of cricket played in domestic circuit. The gap between international standard and Bangladeshi domestic standard is reducing but not in desired rate. One of the major constraint is the lack of infrastructure. Apart from Cricket facilities of divisional cities and Bogra, other cities are quite neglected and requires huge development task. Another major setback is the lack of professionalism in the first class structure. The amount of money paid to each players of the divisional team is unacceptable to its last limit. Professional structure and economic solvency of the players is the pivotal factor for development of a quality first class structure. Lack of cricketing activities and related fitness program in off season (May – September) is another major concern. Indoor cricket facilities need to be built at least in divisional first class venues to solve the problem. Many cricket pundits raise concern about the wickets in which the domestic cricket is played. The quality of wicket has to be improved. Some prescribes for fast bouncy wickets for domestic first class tournament. I am not fully in line with their views. Bangladesh has its own unique condition and we need to exploit that. It is important to make good quality wickets which lasts for four days and behave consistently compared to current wickets in some venues which are under prepared or gives unequal bounce. To accustom with fast bouncy conditions, it is more important to arrange more A team and Academy team tours in countries like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. BCB must act in a proactive fashion about these arrangements.
Now, among these bad scenarios there are some good news and developments for the well wishers and fans of Bangladesh cricket.
• Bangladesh Cricket Board for the firstr time has set up A National Cricket Academy which will take its full shape within couple of years. BCB Academy played some home tour matches and made a successful away tour with their Pakistani Counterpart.

• BCB is setting up indoor facilities in six divisional first class venues which will be implemented within next five years.

• BCB signed a six year TV rights deal with Nimbus which worth $57 Million. This huge money boost will help in developing domestic cricket infra structure. One of the main clause of the deal includes ’10 day telecast of domestic cricket’ which will boost interest in domestic cricket.

• BCB has already set up Mirpur Sher E Bangla Stadium as new ‘Home of Cricket’. The project is not yet fully implemented, after full implementation it will be an unique addition to domestic facility.

• BCB has appointed six pitch curators for first class venues who will team up with previously appointed development managers. These curators will also look after the wickets of the district venues.

• In addition to existing sponsors, new sponsors (Kai Group, Epyllion, Dhaka Bank) are coming forward to sponsor domestic cricket. This is further enhancing financial solvency of Cricket Board.

• A number of initiatives were taken in 2006 to find out cricketing talent from different corners of the country. These include ‘Grameen Phone Talent Hunt’, ‘Pink City Cricket Medhar Khoje’. BCB organized Pace Bowling camps for players selected for these talent hunt programs.

• BCB is handling age group cricket a very professional way. Now regular age group tournaments are organized which includes U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 tournaments.

• BCB is sending promising toungsters to renowned overseas academies like MRF pace academy in India, Commonwealth Bank Academy in Australia, Northern Territory Academy of Sports in Darwin, Australia. After getting trained, they are injecting their valuable experience into the domestic circuit.

Now, these steps will definitely help Bangladesh Domestic Cricket to progress in right direction. By taking these initiatives in 2006, Bangladesh Domestic Cricket has taken a definite step for its transformation from Toddlers to Early Teens. It’s very important to continue these initiatives and take new effective plans for a complete transformation into world standard domestic cricket. Finally, it is quite safe to predict that with international success and domestic good works in 2006, Bangladesh Cricket is definitely heading towards a strong position in world arena.