Farah Zahir's Spotlight ADDA with Joy Shahriar - Dreams of Bangladesh Cricket

 

Farah Zahir's 3M Lounge Spotlight ADDA

with Joy Shahriar

Dreams of Bangladesh Cricket

In the Bhadro edition of Shobdo Mukur comes the advent of autumn. Our 3M Lounge Spotlight Adda also begins with this edition. Among poetry, publishing, music, and dance, my favorite feeling is to have an adda (friendly chat) with a friend from this family, and put them in the spotlight of that adda. From that thought came the inspiration for this writing. From now on, in every monthly edition of Shobdo Mukur, I will bring such a friend into the spotlight and tell the story of my adda with them.

I thought a lot about who to start with. Suddenly, I felt, let me start this adda with someone who is not only my friend in the creative sphere but also my buddy-buddy friend. Such a friend is Joy Shahriar. Joy has many identities … vocalist, composer, music director, lyricist, entrepreneur, publisher, writer, and poet (perhaps I’ve even missed some). In my view, beyond all these identities, Joy is my friend. So, in today’s Spotlight Adda with Joy, I won’t talk about his creative achievements or thoughts. Many already know about those. Today, the conversation with Joy will be about a subject that lies outside the sphere of art but is very dear to both of us … Bangladesh cricket.

Despite his vast work in the artistic sphere, Joy makes time to watch Bangladesh cricket matches. He leaves behind the studio work with his group and enjoys cricket with much cheer. During the matches, there’s tea, onion fritters, puri, and singara. When I told this cricket-crazy friend that today the conversation would be about cricket, he was overjoyed. Seeing his joy, I was touched as well.

Now, listen to the story of this Spotlight Adda between Joy and me about Bangladesh cricket.

My very first question was, where is Bangladesh cricket now, and in the next five years, where does Joy want to see this cricket team? In response, Joy said, the Bangladesh cricket team is now in a transition. From 2006–07, the team that rose with Mashrafe, Shakib, Tamim, Mushfiq, and Riyad, and because of whom Bangladesh cricket played at a world-class level till 2015–16, is now somewhat in decline. Our success was in limited-overs cricket (like ODIs or T20s). Much of this success was due to these five world-class cricketers. But now these ‘Pancha Pandav’ are no longer in those matches … they have retired. The young cricketers are not yet playing at their level. But that does not mean they never will. They, too, will play well.

Joy believes many teams go through such transitions. Sri Lanka is going through it as well. Their great cricketers have retired, and the young Sri Lankan cricketers are not yet playing like Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Muralitharan, or Vaas. The same is the condition of the West Indies. Pakistan, too, is suffering from the same decline in brilliance. But Joy is hopeful about the young cricketers of Bangladesh. He said most of them came from the Under-19 team, which had won the Under-19 World Cup. Therefore, these young players play fearless cricket. They have no inferiority complex because they became world champions by defeating teams like Australia, England, or India. They have the mentality to win the World Cup. That’s why, in the next five years, I want to see the Bangladesh team within the top one to five in ODIs, Tests, or T20s, and I want Bangladesh to win one or two world-class titles in the next five years. The upcoming T20 World Cup will be in South Asia, which is our familiar region. My expectation is that this young team from Bangladesh will fight in this tournament and play with the effort to become champions.

While he was saying this, I noticed a strange, bright glow on Joy’s face. Perhaps this glow was the radiance of his immense love and affection for Bangladesh cricket. To capture that radiance, I asked, if we are to reach the top five in world rankings, what do we need the most … new talent, coaching, or the development of the domestic league?

Joy was probably waiting for this question. Frankly, he said, all of these are needed … but first of all, the development of the domestic league. Our domestic league has to be competitive. What happens now is, a player performs well in the domestic league, but when selected for the national team, they don’t perform well. The reason is, in the domestic league, they don’t face international-level challenges. Therefore, our domestic league has to become more competitive, like it once used to be. In our childhood, we saw players like Wasim Akram, Neil Fairbrother, or Jayasuriya play in our domestic league. We need a domestic league of that quality again, and not only in Dhaka but also outside Dhaka. I’ve heard that the leagues outside Dhaka are not held regularly, or even if they are, their standard is not at Dhaka’s level. This is not acceptable at all. This condition needs to change.

I agreed with Joy’s words. Since the conversation was so lively and smooth, without hesitation, I asked, What’s the second thing? My question, Joy caught like a slip catch and said, the second is coaching, and the expansion of coaching across the country. More than coaching the national team, what’s more important is managing it and selecting the right eleven. The real coaching happens before reaching the national stage, where teenage cricketers have the chance to develop technique and fitness. In these areas, there must be no regional discrimination in facilities or infrastructure. While Mirpur Stadium’s facilities are world-class, those of the stadiums outside Dhaka are not at that level. We must make sure that in all stadiums, skill development, fitness, pitch, and training facilities are world-class.

I completely agreed with Joy on this. I thought of knowing about Joy’s three favorite Bangladeshi cricketers, and also which qualities of theirs he admires the most.

Just like in the previous two questions, Joy was ready this time as well. In a very simple tone, he said, It’s very hard for me to name just three. I like every Bangladeshi cricketer, because they represent the country. And different generations of cricketers have faced different types of challenges, so comparing them is not easy.

I can easily place two cricketers in my favorites list. One is Aminul Islam Bulbul, who was the captain of Bangladesh’s first World Cup team. I was a supporter of Mohammedan, and he was the captain of Mohammedan. At that time, Bangladesh didn’t play much cricket on the international stage. But he played a wonderful innings of 145 runs in Bangladesh’s first Test. For all these reasons, he is my very favorite cricketer. The other is Shakib Al Hasan. He is the best player of Bangladesh. For ten years, across three formats, he remained at the top of the world rankings. This is undoubtedly a huge achievement. I really like his attitude and cricketing intelligence. Shakib and Tamim are those players who established Bangladesh as a competitive team in the world. They challenged the opponents eye-to-eye and also emerged victorious. Before them, we had the mentality of being a small team, being content with honorable defeats or showing excessive friendliness, which perhaps sent a weak signal about our position. Because of Shakib and Tamim, world cricketers were forced to respect Bangladesh.

Before I could ask the next question, Joy spontaneously said, Actually, I have many more favorite cricketers. If I talk about earlier times, then Habibul Bashar, Hasibul Hossain Shanto, and Mohammad Rafique, I really like. I also like Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, and Mashrafe Mortaza. Among the new ones, Liton, Taskin, and Mustafiz must be named. But among all of them, my favorite cricketers are Aminul Islam Bulbul and Shakib Al Hasan.

When I asked about the young players of recent times, Joy especially mentioned Tanzid Tamim. He believes that, among the young generation, Tanzid Tamim has a very bright future. Cricket is changing. In the trend of aggressive batting in today’s cricket, Tanzid Tamim has adapted well. And among the young bowlers, Joy is hopeful about Rishad Hossain’s future. He believes Bangladesh cricket’s future success will depend a lot on these two cricketers’ achievements.

Our adda was getting very lively. It always does. And Joy never gets tired of talking about cricket. But our time was almost over. I asked my last question. I said, if you were the BCB president, what would be the first three things you’d do for Bangladesh cricket?

For the first time in today’s adda, it felt like Joy was taking a measured stroke. After thinking a bit, he said, the first thing I would do is very carefully select and coordinate the coaching staff and the team, and set a two-year timeframe, giving them assurance of position and goals for success. I wouldn’t make too many changes, because the fear of constant changes and uncertainty creates discomfort among the players. This harms performance. Then, the second thing I would do is a long-term plan for Bangladesh cricket. In this plan, I’d include infrastructure, facilities, pitches, training, and the proper spread and development of cricket at the school level. And I’d emphasize regularity. Meaning, I’d make the code of conduct of cricket more world-class. In this, I’d take special measures to ensure responsible behavior in important matters like media, cricket criticism, or analysis.

This Spotlight Adda on cricket with Joy felt really wonderful. His words carried logic, a critical perspective, as well as a constructive and optimistic attitude. At the end of the conversation, I learned that he himself used to play cricket in his school days. Perhaps that’s why even now, seeing bat and ball, his hands itch to play again.

Not all our wishes come true. But in the reflection of those wishes, we seek the success of the next generation, or we weave dreams of fulfilling the nation’s wishes through them. Joy’s immense enthusiasm and interest in cricket may perhaps be inspired by something like this.

And the rest is from the spirit of patriotism, or the emotion of love for the country. Because of patriotism, one can hand over one’s unfulfilled wishes about cricket to the next generation, and sitting in the gallery or in front of the TV, shed tears of joy at the nation’s victory … and from the emotion of love for the country, perhaps one can sit with the people of the nation and comfortably have an adda about cricket.

The ‘opening’ of 3M Lounge Spotlight has been with Joy. Heartfelt thanks to him. May Bangladesh cricket be victorious.

Published in Shobdo Mukur e-magazine Bhadro edition, 1432.