Ever since Bangladesh advanced into the Super Eights of the World Cup at the expense of India there was a debate between two schools of thoughts.

The hardliners described Bangladesh's incredible victory against India as a flash in the pan. They also observed that the Tigers would be misfits in a fiercely competitive second round of the showpiece event.

The saner section, on the other hand, described Bangladesh's comprehensive victory over India as the team's coming of age. They also hailed the Tigers as one of the most attractive young brigades capable of doing better things in the future. It would have been quite comfortable had the debate stopped at that point.

But unfortunately Bangladesh, like it's more colourful neighbours India, has got mindless followers whose emotion often beats logic. The whole nation was over the moon since early hours of March 26, a very

special day in the history of the country. It was quite understandable when we rejoiced the success against Bermuda that confirmed the Tigers of a place in the next round.

But wasn't that something like an excess what followed when many including the knowledgeable section started thinking of 'going all the way to the semifinals' or sweeping comments like 'winning has become a habit for us' or 'I don't want to take the win as an upset'.

But after the Tigers' two games in the Super Eights phase, those 'sweet' words suddenly turned sour and a few of them have already started to vomit in talk shows on different TV channels. Not only that they are also blowing hot and cold in the changed scenario after two heavy defeats against world champions Australia and New Zealand.

Were those two defeats - a 10-wicket demolition by the Aussies in a rain-reduced match followed by a nine-wicket thrashing by their trans-Tasman rivals -- unex-

pected?

The talk show gives the audience a new food for thought while the experts start to give X-ray reports at length just to appease the frustrated millions.

“Aftab should not have played that expansive lofted shot that virtually sparked the collapse against New Zealand,” was the opening of an expert.

“Bangladesh started on a solid footing with Javed (Omar) and Tamim (Iqbal)...”

But these are all lame excuses. It is all about attitude. If Javed is allowed to play his natural game that he has been doing over the years, then why blame Aftab for playing his natural game on a wicket tailor-made for shot making.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, a former Bangladesh Cricket Board president, was quite right when he said: “After all these years if Javed is the choice for an out-of-from Shahriar Nafees then I'm sorry to say that our cricket has improved that we claim.”

Captain Habibul Bashar said

after the New Zealand match that Tamim was instructed to check his shots in the early overs.

We can have a debate on that management decision but would Bashar please tell us about his comical display while fielding or when will he start scoring runs and at what position?

But these are trivial issues. The problem lies somewhere else. We need to find why the players are committing the same mistakes, why the attitude has not changed. It's nothing new when people say we have got a lot of talents. Perhaps Mohammad Ashraful is the oldest 'young' talent in the history of world cricket. The fear is that we might see the fresh batch of talents vanish in the oblivion much like the Al-Shahriars, Kapalis or the Hannans who were once touted as the best players of their generation by the same team management.

It is about time the management had a facelift whatever the Tigers experience in their next four games of the World Cup.