Cricket in Bangladesh should not be focused on Dhaka

Former Pakistan captain and popular commentatorRamiz Rajais currently in Dhaka, involved in his first commentary period for the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). In an interview withMazhar Uddin of The Daily StarThe 61-year-old, who was instrumental in the revival of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as the former head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), shared his views on the state of the BPL and cricket in Bangladesh and how the things can improve here. and more. The excerpts of the interview are as follows:

The Daily Star (DS): When was the last time you were here in Bangladesh? How have the experiences been so far?

Ramiz Raja (RR): I think it must have been four or five years ago during a World Cup. My experience was very nice because I was welcomed kindly. This time it's different than I do [commentary for] the BPL. I always wanted to be here because of the fans and cricket was special sometimes.

DS: Your opinion on the BPL standard?

RR: You see, the fields were very good. Even though there are sometimes high-scoring matches, a mid-range total is sometimes more exciting to watch. The talent was pretty decent, but there is always room for improvement.

Although PSL is considered a bowlers league, the local bowlers are quite good. In the BPL so far it is more like a left-armer or a spinner league. I think from a hitter's perspective you have to find players with better temperaments; especially the young players, because they looked good for a 20 or a 30 and then they throw away their wicket. So it's important that they understand the value of a start and make it count.

But when you see Towhid Hridoy, Tanzid Hasan and then Tamim, Shakib, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah, these guys have been around for a long time. It is therefore an excellent opportunity for the young people to learn in the dugout. The whole idea is to build a bridge between the international players and local cricketers, so from that point of view BPL is a great resource.

DS: You played a major role behind the revival of PSL when you were PCB chairman. How do you think BPL can be improved?

RR: You have to continue your efforts and make it comfortable for the franchise owners as well. What we did at PSL is that each franchise owner has to pay a fee to PCB and everything else related to the marketing is shared by the franchise owner. It makes sense to them from a business perspective, so you have to encourage that from a business perspective. You get the best investors and from a marketing perspective I'm not sure how much interest this competition has [BPL] applies to sponsoring companies.

I think this is an area where PSL has flourished because there is a lot of interest among the sponsors within the multinational companies to invest in PSL, so they hold back the budget and wait for PSL to happen so that we get a lot and value. Look, the standard here will improve, but you have to have a system to encourage the young people and that takes time. Whatever happens here is also a reflection of your domestic cricket, and so as long as you follow a certain process here, I am sure you will get good talents.

DS: There was a lot of talk about the lack of a revenue sharing model in BPL. Can you summarize PSL's business model?

RR: At least 95 percent of what the PSL board earns goes to PSL franchisees. The franchisees pay us [PCB] a significant fee for whatever marketing they do for the teams and whatever marketing the PCB does, 95 percent goes to the franchise owners. So the idea is that they at least break even every season.

DS: How do you assess the progress of cricket in Bangladesh?

RR: I think this T20 format is instinctive for the Asian bloc and you feel this format is tailor-made for us. But I don't think Bangladesh has really achieved results at the international level. They were great at home, but the whole idea is to prepare for the away games because that's where you earn respect. It's difficult, but at least they're holding up in Bangladesh, which is good. I think Bangladesh can become competitive by improving the pitches and there is also a lot of talent in fast bowling. So you have to encourage the talents with good conditions.

DS: While you were PCB chairman, which aspect did you give the most priority to improve the domestic circuit?

RR: I have built my chairmanship around three pillars: excellent marketing, excellent administration and excellent cricket. To achieve cricket excellence, it was important to look at what is happening in cricket at age level. That is why we started the Pakistan Junior League to make it commercially viable, to give them the feeling that cricket can be a livelihood at an early stage and to develop it into a career in the sport. It was an under-19 league and these guys were paid between $11,000 and $17,000 for ten or fifteen days of cricket as we had legends like Viv Richards, Javed Miandad; all these guys were there. And it worked because the idea was to have a good under-19 because that will increase the player pool. The tournament was not followed by the next regime, which was sad. The pitches were terrible on domestic circuits as many matches were played on certain grounds. So we had Australian ground and now I think we have about four stadiums where we have at least one or two Australian pitches.

I had a few [English] County coaches to coach our first-class teams, so we needed an independent man's opinion to let us know what needed to be done. It means giving players a different perspective on the game and it worked well.

Engro, a multinational company in Pakistan, has invested in us by investing a lot of money to educate a hundred children in Pakistan. We provided their equipment free of charge, so we wanted to create versatile players. It was for a term of three years.

We have revived school cricket. About 5,000 schools will play one school system because we felt that this is our future. Talking about Pakistan, I think we are good at white ball cricket compared to Test cricket. In Test cricket, we have to improve a lot more and unless we control the pitches, we cannot move forward. I think this is an area where we have been struggling recently.

DS: Cricket in Bangladesh is largely focused on Dhaka. What is the situation in Pakistan?

RR: No, it's not like that in Pakistan. We have provincial and regional tournaments and cricket is everywhere. For Bangladesh, it should not be focused on Dhaka. In Sri Lanka it used to be Colombo-centric, but they are trying to get away from that. In Pakistan you will find talent from within and outside the region, for example in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. About 10 to 15 years ago, you could hardly find a cricketer there, but now 90 percent of the Pakistani side comes from that region, and that couldn't have happened if it was Lahore or Karachi-centric. So you have to concentrate on spreading cricket across the country.

DS: As PCB chief, have you tried to rebuild relations with India?

RR: That is a decision at government level. But you know, we speak the same language and the culture is also similar and I always felt that through cricket we can do a lot of things. Because it is a political issue, there is so much you can do.