Killing time not good

Former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar is going through a long lay-off with no cricket for him in the near future as there is no domestic competition at the moment and the next international schedule is in New Zealand in December.

But it seems not at all a good break for Bashar and his other colleagues, who are under the payroll of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), in absence of action.

Currently, only nine contracted players out of 21 are taking part in the training programme to prepare for the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.

"For the first time in my career I have been enjoying such a long break from cricket. But in the end it would not be good for us. Most of the players who are now out of the national camp are eagerly waiting to return," said Bashar.

"I think it would be nice for us if the board arranged a programme next month," he urged.

The most important thing is that the long absence from training may affect the fitness levels of many players because the Tigers have hardly proved having personal drive to improve their skill and fitness during vacations.

Many also believe that Bangladesh should focus more on the tour of New Zealand rather than the Twenty20 cricket after the disgraceful performance in the recently concluded tour to Sri Lanka.

Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, the new chairman of cricket operations committee, was also very much aware with the fact but he seemed helpless with the shortage of coaching staff.

"I do agree that this contracted players desperately need some programme to keep in touch with cricket. Fitness is a big issue. Personally I am very keen to arrange a batting programme for them as you know it's a real headache in the longer-version competition," said the former national skipper reminding that the tour of New Zealand is not far off.

"I will definitely try to arrange something for them in the next month but the problem is that we do not have enough coaching staff in our hand right at the moment. There is no national team coach and that's why we have to depend on our development manager and we also lack coaches in other sectors," he added.

Lipu said that he will discuss the matter with the interim national coach Shaun Williams today.

"I will talk with him for the first time and it would be one of issues in our discussion," he informed.