Faruque Ahmed resigns as chief selector

Sport Desk: Former Bangladesh National Cricket Team captain Faruque Ahmed has stepped down as the chief selector after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) approved changes to the selection process.

Faruque resigned on Sunday (June 19) hours after Bangladesh’s head coach Chandika Hathurusingha was retained until 2019 and changes in the selection committee were made at a meeting of BCB Directors of Boards at its headquarter in Mirpur.

As per the new changes, Faruque was to be part of three-member panel and accordingly it will pass on to six-member committee that included BCB operations chairman Akram Khan and director Khaled Mahmud. The final nod was to be based on BCB president.

Faruque cited the reason for resigning as chief selector mentioning too much of interference in the selection process and also the opinions might clash in the process. The independence of the selectors goes in vain.

“It will be difficult to work in this system. We have to have scope to work without interference. The independence of the selectors will be greatly compromised. The new system isn’t going to help Bangladesh cricket, as it won’t be able to deliver. There will be shared accountability where no one would really know who took the decision,” while speaking to ESPNcricinfo.com, Faruque said.

Faruque has raised these concerns when the talks were in place regarding the three-process system and when BCB confirmed the decision he decided to back out, “The decision has been taken, I will not work under this system. I will complete the formalities once I return home from the US.” Earlier, the coach and captain were left out for their inputs but had the say to choose a side they thought was best. This side would then need to be approved by the cricket operations committee chairman and finally by the BCB president as well. Such has been the case for more than a decade.

Faruque was appointed as chief selector for the second time in December 2013. In the first stint his team lasted from 2003 to 2007, for which he was praised. It was under his decision, Mushfiqur Rahim was selected as wicket-keeper for 2007 World Cup ahead of Khaled Mashud. The decision paid off as Mushfiqur went to become one of Bangladesh’s most consistent performers.

His second stint included nine-month period from January to September 2014 when Bangladesh won only two out of 27 matches across all formats. But Bangladesh ended their year on a positive note beating Zimbabwe in three Tests and five ODIs, England at Adelaide to qualify for World Cup quarter-final, series win against Pakistan, India and South Africa in ODIs and were runners-up in Asia Cup T20 2016.

Faruque is happy with his stint and further mentioned, “I have done my job with all honesty. I think I deserve a bit of [credit for] what Bangladesh have achieved when I was the chief selector. I think Bangladesh cricket and the game itself is much larger than a chief selector so I hope the best interest of Bangladesh cricket is taken into account. I am sure the BCB has made this new committee with good intentions but it would do more harm than good.”

risingbd/DHAKA/June 20, 2016/Porag/Augustin Sujan