Hassan: The interferer-in-chief

It was not really a novel development when Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan said on Monday that 'I will be there in Sri Lanka to look after everything, and I will be with them [the team] at all times'.

He was talking about the stop-gap coaching solutions for Bangladesh's tour of Sri Lanka for a tri-nation T20I series this month, and inserted himself as part of the solution -- not a surprise for those familiar with the president's tendencies. It is relevant to mention here that Hassan is a ruling party lawmaker and CEO of BEXIMCO Pharmaceuticals, positions that have given him the administrative experience to head a cricket board. Nowhere in his CV, however, is a role that imbues him with cricketing expertise -- it is not necessary for most cricket board presidents, but it is a different matter for one who weighs in on cricketing matters every chance he gets.

However, his unwarranted involvement is nothing new as even during happier times, such as on a successful tour of Sri Lanka just under a year ago, he came up with soundbites like: "I would have gone home today [April 5, 2017, a day after Bangladesh lost the first T20I in Colombo] if we won yesterday, but since we lost I have to stay behind."

In April 2017, when the team drew all their series in Sri Lanka, Hassan's undue involvement raised questions but they did not gain currency. But now after Bangladesh have lost, at times humiliatingly, to a middling Sri Lanka side in all formats at home over the first two months of the year, the time is ripe to wonder what it says about the system in place to govern and execute the country's cricketing ambitions that the board president feels the need to be with the team 'at all times' to guide them -- a role that no other board chief in the cricketing world makes his or her own.

They do not need to make it their own because they, or their predecessors, have appointed and empowered personnel in various sectors of running a national team. Hassan, on the other hand, has not just presided over but exacerbated a system in which the various sectors -- directors, selectors, coaches, players -- are dependent on him for decisions or directions regardless of whether it is necessary or even welcome.

It was Hassan's decision to alter the squad selection procedure, which sowed the seeds of Bangladesh's current poverty of resources. He included then coach Chandika Hathurusingha in the process even though the Sri Lankan did not stay in the country during the national team's downtime to view domestic talent, resulting in a stagnancy in the pipeline of new players. That led to the exit of a strong voice in selection -- then chief selector Faruque Ahmed -- and saw the instalment of a puppet selection panel headed by Minhajul Abedin.

The ineffectual board of directors -- populated by Hassan yes-men -- and the cricket operations committee (COC) is not much better. The most recent example of the COC's ineptness is the forced vacation of Bangladesh fielding and assistant coach Richard Halsall for the duration of the tri-series, a decision that was likely influenced by Hassan and one that has only added to the air of chaos and instability.

Hassan was not content having blurred the lines between selection and coaching; he stepped in as selector often, notably when he retroactively forced Mominul Haque into the squad for the first Test against Australia at home last August, undermining the man he empowered just a year earlier.

And now that Hathurusingha has left, a bad situation has become worse as the puppet selection committee is now open to even greater undue interference from the president, who does not even have Hathurusingha's nous. Rather than setting up good systems that promote a separate selection panel that can act of its own accord, Hassan continues unabated in his effort to blur lines further. A prime example is the mess of conflicts of interest that is Khaled Mahmud, who has been given a plethora of roles in Hassan's administration and the conflicts extend to the board president. 

Mahmud's laundry list of designations include BCB director, Abahani coach, development committee chairman, BEXIMCO cricket director. A cursory glance will reveal at least two conflicts of interest there. Thankfully, he has been removed as technical director of the Bangladesh team in the aftermath of the Sri Lanka series. Unfortunately, it has opened up further space for the board president to 'look after the team' in Sri Lanka.

His undermining of coaches, selectors and players – which has the knock-on effect of weakening the country's cricketing institutions -- is an ever-visible reality in his glut of television interviews where, instead of staying in the background, he tries to propagate the perception of his role as saviour of Bangladesh cricket.

His over-the-top involvement, while problematic, may have at least been tolerable if he retained a modicum of consistency in his positions or if the team was actually benefited by his overarching presence. But that is far from the case. For example, having risked team destabilisation by talking Mashrafe Bin Mortaza into T20I retirement in Sri Lanka last year, he now wants Mashrafe to come back. At least the reasoning then was solid, that T20Is are the format to blood youngsters. A few losses later, that has been thrown out the window but Mashrafe has displayed the good sense that his president so clearly has shown to lack and refused to come back.

There is also enough reason to believe that the team do not savour the presence of the president in the everyday cricketing sphere. It is a safe bet that they certainly do not appreciate the public tongue lashings that Hassan metes out after bad results, a quality made all the more infuriating by the growing impression that Hassan's destabilising influence itself may be part of the problem.

In Monday's press address, where the 16-man Bangladesh squad was announced, Hassan said that he had not only finalised the squad but also the possible playing eleven. He also announced that Bangladesh pace bowling coach and legendary former West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh will be the interim coach for the Sri Lanka tri-series. Walsh, having witnessed Hassan's nose-poking style of administration, is probably aware that he will not have the full run of the team in Sri Lanka.

Against this backdrop, there is not a high chance that they will do well against Sri Lanka and India in the tri-series, which is just as well, because if the team do manage some success it will only serve to entrench Hassan in his role of interferer in chief -- and if the past holds any clue, that will only be to the team's detriment.