Yo-yo selection process

Mominul out, Mominul in. It is a drama that lasted just over 24 hours and the parting shot gives us an impression of a happy ending to a tale that started bitterly.

The villains of this drama are the deeply divided national selectors, who dropped the top-order batsman on Saturday afternoon from Bangladesh's 14-man squad for the first Test against Australia before re-introducing him to the squad as a replacement for Mosaddek Hossain on Sunday evening.

After a nervy day, where the axing of Mominul was greeted with severe criticism, chief selector Minhajul Abedin came up with an interesting theory of why they dropped him and then what prompted them to re-instate the left-hander.

"This was always part of the plan," said Minhajul. "We thought if Mosaddek does not recover from his eye problem someone will come into the squad, and that is Mominul. As we have been waiting for the final approval of the BCB president [Nazmul Hassan], Mominul has been included today."

This explanation however is in stark contrast to that noisy press briefing on Saturday where the three selectors in attendance, including coach Chandika Hathurusingha, did not give any indication of a back-up plan centring Mominul.

They have addressed the 'eye issue' of Mosaddek and Minhajul clearly mentioned that all-rounder Nasir Hossain, who made his return to the Test fold after a gap of two years, would act as back-up for Mosaddek and off-spinner Mehedi Hasan.

Mosaddek was picked in the squad in hopes that he could recover from his eye problem before the first Test.

But the chief selector yesterday told The Daily Star that 'it will take seven to 10 days for him to fully recover, which means that he will miss the first Test beginning on August 27'.

We are not sure if he got this crucial medical report on Sunday. If that is the case then there is a serious problem in the whole system on which the Bangladesh Cricket Board operates. If he was aware of it much earlier, then the selectors should have cleared it in Saturday's briefing.

14 is not a fixed number and it is also not clear why the selectors were very rigid when they had an option to announce a 15-member team.

Actually this selection panel lacks clarity, clarity in understanding and more importantly clarity in its whole system. When Faruque Ahmed resigned from the demanding post a year ago following a shake-up in an otherwise smooth system, he made an interesting observation -- that this complex and long selection panel would do more harm than good. Saturday's episode is only a small example of a peculiar selection panel where the captain's input is regarded as a luxury.

Australia captain Steven Smith might be amused to learn that over here the manager speaks for the captain and his deputy in the selection meeting. More amusing is that Bangladesh have deemed it not mandatory to appoint a team manager since it is a home series.

There is a popular notion that the present selection committee are puppets executing the will of certain others vested with inordinate power. Our selection for the last couple of series created so much controversy that it allowed the board president to intervene.

And Sunday was no exception when BCB president Nazmul Hasan stepped in.

"It's very unfortunate that Mominul is not part of the first Test. He is one of our best batsmen. There is no reason for him to be dropped. I have also discussed why he was dropped. The coach will talk to him, I will also talk with him. He has no reason to be disappointed," the BCB boss told reporters yesterday.

But is it not unfortunate on the part of the BCB boss to have this sort of selection panel?