[shovon13]

An Open Letter to Professional Cricketers of Bangladesh
(and by extension, to those of other nations)

Some concepts contained in this letter may have been introduced to you by coaches, mentors, colleagues, family members, and friends. The value of this letter is to be found in familiar messages being repeated from another voice, afresh and dipped with experiences from this point in space.

The contents of this letter is targeted to those who are professionals. For you, cricket is your bread-winner. You are an artisan, a tradesman – you barter joy for our heart, a singular beat of a raucous stadium. Cricket is your craft. To what extent you obsess over perfecting it, is a decision you make in consultation with your Soul.

Let go of fear. Fear begets failure. An effective strategy is to visualize the very thing that you fear – a dropped catch, a bad shot, half-trackers, full-tosses, a positive move down the wicket ending in your dismissal. Accept these outcomes. Visualize them, and accept them – until that sinking feeling at the prospect of a high catch, a tense chase, a rampaging batsman, a stifling spell – until that fear disappears. The worst thing that can happen is that you may be shot dead as Andres Escobar was, having conceded an own goal while playing for Colombia in 1994. But we all have to die at some point. Hunt for the ball, free of fear.

Overcome guilt. So what you looked up to Hansie Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin, or Mohammad Ashraful? The beauty of their leadership, their strength, their audacious play are unaffected. Understand that men are imperfect, and that each of us walk a tight-rope through life’s hills and valleys with a unique balancing pole (or just bare hands, stretched out in fashion of a weak bird). Forgive your own mistakes, having observed self growth. Overcome guilt. Indulge in your heroes and in your own power.

Rein in your impatience. Your awesome abilities can get the better of you. Let the moment come to you. Do not chase that straight blast for a six, the sexy drift, those cartwheeling stumps, the wrong-handed side-ways superman throw from square leg. If you are ready, it should happen. Be patient. Ravenously accumulate moments of good fundamentals. Be greedy for the proper shot to the delivery you just faced, even if it is a simple forward defense. Salivate at the idea of bowling six times at the same length on the fourth stump, even if the batsman leaves every single one of them. Bend your knees, and field.

Cry out your sorrows, and go back to loving the game. Once you play long enough, you may collect unfortunate moments where you may have felt let down by the game. Cricket, as are all things in life, is both blissful and painful. Sports in general also come with passionate and sometimes immoral fanatics. Develop strategies to process your sorrows, lest they slowly devolve into simmering hatred – and turn you into half the player you could be. Draw on the power of love, and destroy (records).

Lean towards transparency. When in doubt, speak the truth. If you feel that your performance is stilted for a tangible reason, express it directly. Do not hem and haw. Your team and your self shall be better served for your courage and for your truthfulness. In an unfavorable scenario – in a team poorly managed, it may challenge the status quo and initiate some necessary changes. You may suffer in the immediacy of such an event. However, in such a case, your career may be cut short anyway because of your own and your team’s under-performance in the long run. Speak sparingly, but necessarily.

Become selfless. Your teammate’s success is your own. By a difficult extrapolation, your opponent’s success is your own.

Finally, understand that life is bigger than the game.