Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud feels that cricketers need to shed their fear of failure in order to excel in the shortest format. The former national captain and current board director appointed as the team director of the national cricket team spoke at length with Cricbuzz regarding the just-concluded tour of West Indies, Mahmudullah's captaincy, concerns over Mustafizur Rahman in overseas conditions and a lot more.
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Do you feel the series win over West Indies in the ODI series overshadows the failure in Test and T20Is?
No not at all (This win in the ODIs cannot overshadow our failure in the other two formats). Look losing is part of the game and we can always lose but I was upset about the process. These boys won the ODIs and so we can say that they don't have lot of problem tactically and technically. In Test matches you can say that you got to have the techniques against fast bowlers. It is not a fact that we don't play fast bowlers well. We had won few odd matches against fast bowlers. But there is problem somewhere mentally.
Why are Bangladesh failing in the T20Is? What is stopping the players from expressing themselves in shortest format?
In T20, we have to play all out cricket and it's high time. There is a fear factor and we are talking about it for so long but the fear factor is still there. Even then, I am happy that I saw boys are trying to hit and Afif was brilliant. But it won't help if one or two players play like that. The whole team must sit and make a way so that they can perform better. It won't help if three players don't have fear and five players have that fear. If we are fearless initially we might lose but once we start scoring over 160 to 180 runs on regular basis, we will start winning. You might get out for 125 or 130 runs trying scoring over 180 runs and that is ok, we will have some chances in some of the matches.
There is a saying in Bangladesh that they don't have power hitters because of genetics and that is the reason they are targeting scores like 150 or 160 runs? Do you agree with that?
I might accept their view (that we are unable to score more than 150 or 160 runs) but what I am saying is how we will do it. Do you feel that I have to be a boxer or you have to be six feet tall to hit sixes? Didn't small players in stature like Sachin (Tendulkar) Sanath Jayasuriya or Romesh Kaluwitharana hit sixes? If the Indians and Sri Lankans can do it, why can't we do that?
I agree that South Africans and West Indians are powerful but compare us with the Indians. Isn't Ishant Kishan hitting sixes? how tall is he? there is no point going into an argument that we can't do it and they can. I don't want to hear we can't do it. What I want to know is how we can do that and we must get our build up accordingly.
How do you rate Mahmudullah's captaincy?
Captaincy varies from person to person like Riyad (Mahmudullah) is one type and Shakib is another type and Tamim is another type. Definitely there was concern regarding captaincy (of Mahmudullah). One day Mossadek Hossain made a breakthrough and got a maiden wicket, and at that point he deserved at least one (more) over and even if he was hit for six sixes in that over I wouldn't mind to be very honest.
If I don't have the faith that Mossadek can bowl to a right hander than obviously this is a problem. The right hand left-hand combination we do in domestic cricket is first-class because in domestic cricket there is spin and left-handers struggle against right-handed off spin while right handers seem to struggle against left-arm spin. But in international cricket, if you carry the same mindset it will be difficult.
I don't know why Riyad (Mahmudullah) did that and in another game we did not completed full quota of Shakib. Only he can say what went through his mind at that moment, but definitely I am not convinced with it.
Are you a bit worried about Mustafizur Rahman performance in overseas condition?
I am bit worried because Mustafizur is not doing anything extraordinary (abroad) like he does at home. If we take his debut into account, I don't think he is where he should have been. He is a fantastic bowler and one of the best in our country but he is not delivering as per our expectation. Perhaps other teams now have got a hang of his variations. He is quick and he got in-swinger nowadays while he always had out swingers so he should be troubling batters more, which is not happening in overseas conditions.
