DHAKA, Jan 7, 2020 (BSS)- Sylhet Thunder Captain Andre Fletcher criticized his coach Harchelle Gibbs views on the English of Bangladeshi cricketers, stating that he himself didn’t find any problem to interact with them in English.
As Sylhet ended the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BBPL) campaign
in frustrating fashion, languishing at the bottom of the table with
staggering 11 defeats in 12 games, Flecther was asked whether the language
problem, as revealed by Gibbs, created adverse impact on team’s performance.
“I am not the coach. I’ve been with a very good rapport with the guys,
they understand me very well. It’s very surprising from him to hear that as a
coach. The players as I said is, we have to take responsibility for our game.
We can’t blame anyone,” Flecther said here today.
Quite a few days ago, Harchelle Gibbs came up with a statement that a lot
of local players don’t understand English well, which made his task tougher
one and it reflected on their BBPL campaign also.
“Like I said, the standard [BBPL] is good. You are going to get that,
obviously international players play more around the world. You expect them
to be leading a lot to the turf. They should be the example. The local
players for me, a lot of them don’t understand English. So it is difficult
for me to make points all the time,” Gibbs said.
“And that is frustration. Because when I talk, I can see they are
listening, but they are not syncing in. for me the understanding of the game,
just needs to improve. That’s the one thing. They are very temperamental. I
think, it is difficult for me to just to explain it to them. Because they
don’t understand.”
Gibbs’ point raised a curious question as all the coaching staff of
Bangladesh national team is foreigner. There were also allegations that apart
from the senior players, none of them could understand the national team’s
coaching staff’s English. And the junior players always take the help of
senior players to decode what the coaching staff said.
Fletcher said, whatever it is, the Gibbs statement doesn’t make any sense.
“I believe the head coach of Bangladesh speaks English, so I think all the
Bangladeshi players understand English. So, to make a statement like this
doesn’t make any sense to me,” he concluded.