Mushfiqur Rahim - Regretting the impetuous resignation from captaincy

Mushfiqur Rahim (left)

Hasty Mushfiqur now looks for a speedy recovery of the ‘supposedly’ wrong decision that he made. The decision or rather the ‘announcement’ came a few minutes after Bangladesh lost their third ODI against Zimbabwe by 7 wickets with 17 balls still remaining. The decision was indeed about his resignation from his captaincy. As an obvious consequence of this hasty announcement, observers and journalists are surprised and taken aback all over the world; although BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) is expected to hold meetings to exchange opinions about this prompt resignation and possibly an even more prompt contrition on the decision.

In the post-match press conference in Bulawayo, the then Bangladesh captain requested the journalists to wait for a minute longer. In a tone, quite intensely resided in the loss, he continued to say:

“I just have one thing to add before we finish, I will be stepping down as captain after the last two [Twenty20] matches. I believe that I couldn’t lead my team, and I didn’t score enough runs. That is why I think we lost the ODI series.”

To that he was questioned if there were disputes within the team which led him to take the decision, but he refused to answer and very adamantly walked out of the room.

The BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus remarks that, “It has come as a surprise to us; we have spoken to him moments after he made the announcement. We believe he is an efficient leader, and upon the team’s return on May 15, we will sit and discuss with him face-to-face. “

He goes on to say, “We will have to take a look at the manager’s report, and also find out if he got full cooperation from the other members of the team. His tenure was till the Zimbabwe tour but we will discuss the matter with him. It was perhaps an emotional decision, and it shows how much he cares for the team.”

He is effectively out of his position till the board decides whether to designate him back to his captaincy.

As some of the readers might apprehend, this is, indeed, not the end of the melodrama.

Following the 34-run win over the hosts in Bulawayo on Sunday, Mushfiqur kind of reflected on his decision, and the whimsical captain went on air to say, “After resigning I have realized that I should have discussed the matter with the BCB, who have made me the captain,” Mushfiqur said. “It was my mistake. People from the BCB have told me that we will hold discussions when I am back. I have let them know my decision, now it’s for them to decide.”

The captain negated all reports that claimed that he quit the captaincy as a result of lack of teamwork.

He was quoted saying, “It is not about teamwork. I have taken the decision emotionally. It was a wrong decision on my part. No player should back out in such a time. I should have been encouraging everyone, but I ended up doing just the opposite. I have now realised my mistake. Losing to them didn’t go down well with me. My team-mates have backed me, and I hope this is how it remains in the future.”

Bangladesh drew the Test series 1-1. They lost the first one by 335 runs which was their most disappointing defeat. Later, the team lost their ODI series too, after taking a 1-0 lead. The 2nd T20 win made the captain re-think over his resignation.

Overall they lost 4 games, winning only three, one in each format.

“We are upset, because we had expected a much better result,” Mushfiqur said. “A few things didn’t go our way, plus we made some mistakes. We should have won the last [ODI], which was disappointing. We should have conducted ourselves better in the field, cooler heads were missing. There’s a lot to learn from tours like this.”

Apart from the cricketing point of view, Mushfiqur really needs to learn a lot of things from the tour. Important decisions like these are not taken as a consequence of a loss of a couple of games. Mushfiqur’s repentance over his decision (that he made earlier of resigning from his captaincy) might as well bring his reputation down in the eyes of the BCB and the fans.

Bangladesh’s next international tour is scheduled in October and the BCB will soon hold talks about this controversy that revolves around the eccentric decision of their captain.