Corruption, lack of foresight, and poor planning has held Bangladesh cricket back: Khaled Mashud

Khaled Mashud is a name that has been entrenched in Bangladesh cricket from its early days. 

A product of the U-19 system, Mashud quickly became one of the best pure wicket-keepers the country had ever seen.

Son of former national footballer Shamsul Islam Mollah, Mashud would go on to captain the national side.

Nicknamed 'Pilot', he now works on developing cricket in Rajshahi and gave an exclusive interview to The Business Standard on what he thinks of Bangladesh's current cricketing landscape and if he would be willing to work in the BCB now that the old regime is gone.

We are seeing a wave of change everywhere in the country, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board is no exception. You are a former cricketer and currently managing an academy. What are your expectations from BCB in the future?

Like everyone else, I have similar expectations. As a former cricketer and a citizen of the country, I want everything to run smoothly and transparently. We have seen the decline of cricket. If we talk about 24 years ago, we didn't have much money, yet we made progress. But suddenly, that progress came to a halt. Other countries started playing better cricket than us.

What do you think caused this halt in progress?

Look, you don't need to be a physical beast to play cricket. Not everyone has to be like (Kieron) Pollard or (Chris) Gayle. Virat Kohli, (Muttiah) Muralitharan, Brian Lara — they aren't robust. You won't find anyone in our country who doesn't love cricket. But corruption, lack of foresight, and poor planning have held us back; we haven't been able to move forward much. Now there is money in cricket, there are brand endorsements. Those who come to work here do so to grow their own business, not for the development of cricket. Even if they don't benefit directly from cricket, they focus on expanding their business by networking with various people. Cricket won't improve this way! But all this is in the past. The main focus should be on how we can do better in the future.

If given the opportunity, would you like to work with the BCB?

I am a cricket person. I work with an academy in Rajshahi. But if I could work with the BCB, it could be done on a larger scale. Because there is funding there, and access to all the tools necessary for cricket development, I would like to work if given the opportunity, as it would allow me to work at the national level and move forward with bigger plans.

You mentioned corruption, in your opinion, what are the areas where this corruption exists?

Corruption is everywhere. In Bangladesh, players come from two places. One is BKSP, and the other is the District Sports Association. Players aren't coming from BKSP like before. And the District Sports Association is completely engulfed in corruption. No one associated with cricket gets the opportunity to work here. Those who come are either relatives of a political leader or leaders themselves. They have no concern for the game. As a result, there are no leagues at the district level now. So, the players who come from far away, leaving their homes to play, get frustrated. If there are no leagues, where will players come from?

So, what is the future of Bangladesh cricket? How will we get players in the future?

Look, when we played, we were the best. After us, players like Mashrafe (Mortaza) and Shakib (Al Hasan) came, who were even better than us. Now, logically, players better than Mashrafe and Shakib should be coming. But players won't just fall from the sky if there are no proper leagues in the country. Regular leagues must take place. The entire infrastructure needs to be revamped.

How big is the difference between us and other countries now?

This can be understood by looking at the pipelines of other countries. In India, players like Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal are ready to take the place of legendary players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. They are pushing seniors to give up their spots through their performance. Their 16th or 17th players are also of very high quality. We don't have such a pipeline because of a lack of will and the absence of regular play.

What is your opinion about the previous and current leadership in the BCB? What kind of leadership does the BCB need now?

(Nazmul Hassan) Papon Bhai was a very powerful person. Whatever he wanted was arranged immediately. But the people around him weren't very effective. They were looking for their own benefits, they didn't try to make Cricket great. That's why we fell behind in many areas. BCB now needs a dynamic leader, someone who is very close to the government and can get anything done instantly. While I speak highly of Papon Bhai, I also say that all the failures under him are his responsibility. Because the leader has to take responsibility for all failures. But I want someone who is a cricket person, who genuinely cares about cricket and wants to take it far forward, to come and lead.

We have a new sports advisor, and there have been many changes everywhere. Do you have any requests from this new government?

I view everything positively. I believe the new government will start everything anew. I want to give them time — let's see for a few more years. We've seen enough so far; it doesn't hurt to wait a bit more. I'm not saying the previous government was bad or anything. But I'm in favour of giving time to the new people who have come in. I believe the youth will take the country forward. They are the present and future of the country. So, I expect them to leave their mark in every field.