& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Stars by name only

Mohammad Isam
When Minhazul Abedin and Aminul Islam say that something is wrong, it must be serious.
Tuesday's A b a h a n i -Mohammedan clash attracted little crowd and produced few runs, but it drew two of the country's biggest names to criticise the overall attitude of the national players towards domestic cricket. Not that the two former batsmen are speaking from afar.
Minhazul is the head coach of his beloved Mohammedan while Aminul is looking to clinch a second consecutive Premier League title with the Dhanmondi-based giants and both are seeing these national players from close quarters. They must be appalled by the lack of responsibility; something that seems to follow the Tigers at all lewis.
Barring Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and to some extent Tamim Iqbal, none of the current national play-
ers inspired anyone with their performance.
Fact that Mohammad Ashraful's only contribution of note for Mohammedan has been a two-wicket haul against Kalabagan must be a shock given that he was paid Tk 8 lakh to score runs. In five innings, Ashraful had scores of 24, 20.7,22 and 19.
Mohammedan’s left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, bound for the Bangalore franchise in the Indian Premier League (1PL), bowled ten pricey wides in a crucial situation against Old DOHS, costing his club the match. Razzak's teammate Zunaed Siddiqui rose to prominence with his domestic runs, but now he seem to have forgotten what took him to the national team in the first place.
Minhazul. a former national captain and pioneer of professionalism in domestic cricket, questioned the commitment of players like Ashraful. He pointed out that the hunger among them is missing and their poor performance directly places them along the also-
rans in the domestic scene.
He said, "A national player should show his class in domestic circuit but unfortunately, none of them could do that.”
Old-timers who were devoted to club cricket in the 80s and 90s, scoff at the word 'pressure' of Dhaka leagues these days. Back in those heady days, players were hounded and lifted on shoulders depending on their show and any lack of commitment towards the club was nothing short of a sin.
One senior player would have made the difference back then but nowadays, a national player in the side usually means they would play their 'natural' game. They would do that no matter what situation the team is in.
But once the national player is discarded, we see a completely different picture. Wicketkeeperbatsman Mushfiqur Rahim is a prime example. The plucky customer scored two fifties and a century in consecutive innings and his side BKSP are thriving under his leadership. It would have been interesting to see the same player if he was in the Pakistan-bound tour party.
It reminds this reporter of days when the national footballers were said to have 'saved their legs' for the clubs whenever they appeared for Bangladesh. The trend is similar in cricket, only difTerence being die players have most of their efforts for lucrative international cricket.
Even four months ago. there was no guarantee of club cricket taking place. Clubs had little money and when the board came forward with enhanced financial help, there was the Brothers Union court case that held up the league.
Now that everything seems rosier, better cricket could have been hoped for. A 'star-less' Premier League is usually ridiculed as boring and unappealing but what of a league with non-perfonning stars?