Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon came down heavily on the team management and players after the Tigers were whitewashed in the two-match Test series against West Indies.
Bangladesh lost the first Test by three wickets, despite setting a fearsome 395-run target before tasted a 17-run defeat in the second and final Test.
The defeat in the Test series came after Bangladesh whitewashed West Indies in the three-match ODI series.
Papon said the BCB would look into the Bangladesh team performance in the series and he personally would talk to all of the players, not only just captain and coach.
Hassan, who often gets involved in the minutiae of running the Bangladesh team, said that Sarkar was his fourth choice.
“When Shakib was injured, I had Akram [Khan], [Khaled Mahmud] Sujon, [Ismail Haider] Mallick, [chief selector Minhajul Abedin] Nannu and [selector Habibul Bashar] Sumon in front of me,” Hassan said.
“I gave them four or five options. My first choice was Mahmudullah Riyad, and then Mosaddek [Hossain], Mahedi [Hasan] and the fourth option was Soumya [Sarkar]. They [captain Haque and coach Russell Domingo] selected Soumya.
“I still went ahead and personally called Mahmudullah, who told me he had back pain. Mosaddek was in Abu Dhabi. We tried, but they [Haque and Domingo] had only one choice. They didn’t mention any other names.”
In the wake of the frustrating defeat, he also emphasized on bringing up changes by saying, “this can’t be allowed to continue” as Bangladesh had lack of planning.
“What’s really going on, I don’t know…..Akram Khan (Cricket Operations Chairman) doesn’t know. I asked what the plan was and how we would bat today. No one knows, I don’t know what the selectors said. Because we can’t go there (due to bio-bubble). This is the situation. You have to know what happened. I don’t know much. I will let you know as soon as I know,” an angry BCB president said after the match.
“I admit that the problem is everywhere. After watching two Test series, I understood that there is a problem,” he added.
He went on to saying: “I need to know first what is happening here. What was their strategy? These things need to be known first. I could not get involved with the team. One day there was a talk with the whole team in a zoom meeting but it was not enough.”
Papon was critical about Bangladesh’s plan to field just one pacer, where Abu Jayed Rahi thrived impeccably in the second Test.
“Once there was a time that we were just spin oriented team but now we have some good pacers. Even in the squad, there were five pacers but we played just one pacer,” he remarked.