Our cricket culture needs to change: BCB Director Fahim

It was D-Day for Bangladesh cricket and in this case, D stood for defeat as both the men's and women's cricket teams were defeated in their respective matches. 

The men's team were whitewashed and nothing short of humiliated by India in the tour, losing all three T20Is and two Tests and barely putting up a fight.

The third and final T20I was a defeat of 133 runs, their biggest in terms of runs in their T20I history.

The women's team didn't fare much better but had their moments to win three out of the four Group Stage matches. 

The match against England and West Indies especially, where they looked good to challenge all the way but ended up losing steam in the end. 

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim spoke with The Business Standard (TBS) on the manner of the defeats and how they are looking to make things better in the future. 

"I was hoping to see an improvement in body language. India, of course, is a strong team, well-versed in playing aggressive cricket, and they have a great deal of versatility in their bowling attack. Naturally, they had the upper hand in terms of overall strength. However, once they started attacking, it felt as though Bangladesh simply gave up. From that point on, it seemed we weren't even in the game. You could see it in the players' faces; they looked as if they had already surrendered. At one stage, it appeared that our bowlers didn't even have a Plan B," Fahim told TBS.

The BCB director felt that players needed to focus more on the processes rather than results.

"I believe this issue can only be addressed if we focus on the process during games, rather than getting overwhelmed by the potential outcome. For example, if we're chasing 220 against India in a T20 match, we immediately think, 'This run chase is impossible.' However, even in the face of such a challenge, you shouldn't lose hope. The problem is, we become so fixated on the result that our plans and execution seem to vanish from our minds, and the game slips away from us."

"Our coaches and players need to put more effort into execution and planning, starting at the developmental levels. If you closely examine the situation, you'll see that the amount of competitive cricket played over the last few years has been insufficient. This lack of competition has deprived our players of a crucial environment, often leading to results that seem pre-determined. This has severely hindered the development of players and their ability to reach their potential. As a result, the national team has been left lacking in character. A player shouldn't give up so easily," he added.

Fahim revealed that the BCB are looking to work on improving the cricket culture across all levels in the country to get better results in the future.

"I believe we need to establish a culture across the entire cricket circuit where people are held accountable for their performances, whether it's in first-class cricket or any other domestic tournament. We should also have a research team to evaluate players' actions and performances across all levels of cricket in the country. This would allow us to assess what value has been added after a tournament, a season, or a year of cricket."

He finally spoke about the women's team and their disappointing results and mainly pointed the finger at the batters and their lack of experience. 

"When it comes to the women's team, we only have two or three established batters. The rest are mostly newcomers who have been selected after just one or two good performances, under the assumption that they were ready. In reality, many of them lack the mentality required to play international cricket. The gap between the environment they are used to and international competition is huge. Unfortunately, I believe we need to lower our expectations. After winning the 2018 Women's Asia Cup, we had a chance to build on that potential, but we failed to do so. In fact, I personally think our batting has regressed since the 2018 team, which is incredibly disappointing," the BCB director concl