BCB to rehire Ali Khan to keep cricketers' mentally fit

 
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is all set to appoint a psychologist to keep cricketers' mentally fit; Bangladesh Cricket Board's cricket operations committee's chairman Akram Khan has revealed the news on Saturday to media.

According to BCB source, the program will initially start with the national women's cricket team and the under-19 cricket team. If positive results come from here, the national cricketers will also come under it. BCB wants to start this activity from this month. Bangladesh-born Canadian sports psychologist Ali Azhar Khan is expected to coordinate the program.

"Bangladesh-born Canadian sports psychologist Azhar Ali Khan will work with the cricketers. Psychologists will take online classes for Akbar Ali, Emon, Shariful and Rakibul at an early stage. Apart from the cricketers of the world-winning youth team, Rumana, Salma and Jahanara will also participate in the online class." Akram said.

The online classes of the psychologist will also be open for the national team cricketers.  Senior and junior can take part in the online classes of the psychopath if they want. The online class of psychologists may start next week.

BCB chief physician Dr. Devashis Chowdhury said that the Women's team and Under-19 team will have five sessions with Ali Azhar Khan virtually in the preliminary stage after which they will decide the next course of action.

"We have already thought about the mental state of the players during this pandemic time," Dr. Chowdhury said "I have talked to Ali Khan, who in the past worked with us. I have explained our plan to him and he also gave his own plan. For the time being, Women's team and Under-19 team is in our plan. If the plan is successful, we'll add the national team," he added.

According to the source, five sessions of Bangladesh women's and U-19 cricket team will be held with Ali Khan with 25 cricketers in each session.Previously psychologist Ali Khan has worked with the BCB several time. This Bangladeshi expatriate from Canada last worked in October 2018. BCB also hired Ali Khan in 2014.

Cricketers have been staying at home since the third week of March because of deadly Corona. It's not just the national team cricketers staying at home Women cricketers and world-winning youth teams are also staying at home. They are all fidgeting at home, unable to get on the field. Everyone is in a hurry to return to the field. The cricketers are spending their time just staying at home and following some fitness training schedule given by the BCB trainer.

 Few days ago Bangladesh's senior cricket Mushfiqur Rahim came out from home and began outdoor training for which he was craving for a long time.To be more precise, the board is planning to restart cricketing activities in July and hence they kept all the venues of the country ready.

As part of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)'s continuing efforts at facilitating its exit strategy following the disruption to programmes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, major international and first class venues such as the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Dhaka, Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chattogram, Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (SICS) in Sylhet and others have been undergoing constant maintenance, the BCB said in a press release some days ago.