Bangladesh domestic players have to change their mindset, says Yusuf Pathan

Yusuf Pathan, the Indian all-rounder, believes that the domestic players in Bangladesh should be open to advise in order to raise their standard of cricket. He was in the country plying his trade in Dhaka Premier League recently and featured for Prime Bank Cricket Club during the tournament. Yusuf too didn’t have a great season as he scored 159 runs in seven outings for his team but was happy after gaining the experience of playing in different environment and culture.

Prime Bank, the champion of 2014/15 season, failed to qualify for the Super League this year as they lost dramatically by two wickets against Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan Samity in their last game of the first phase of the league. Though the lanky cricketer was delighted to witness the amazing the talent in the country and stressed that they only need to be open to the advices given to them by their coaches.

Players must remain open-minded

Yusuf Pathan, while speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, quite openly spoke about his stint in Dhaka Premier League and was impressed with the budding cricketers in Bangladesh.

He said, “I am quite impressed with many of the Bangladeshi cricketers. We have some players in our team who can go for big hits like [Sazzadul Haque] Ripon, Nahidul [Islam] and Delwar [Hossain]. But one thing that is common when I speak to coaches here is that players have a set mindset, which is quite disappointing. These clubs spend a lot of money on these players who shouldn’t worry about anything else other than developing themselves quickly. After getting a Premier-League contract, the players should be motivated to make it big. They must remain open-minded.”

On playing for SRH

The 35-year-old was also excited to play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL). He was bought by the franchise for a decent amount of Rs 1.9 Crore during the auction earlier in January. “After quite sometime I will play for a new franchise, I will make new friends. I will get to meet new cricketers and learn about new cultures of different countries. I always like to play cricket in Hyderaba,” Pathan added.

“This time too, I will get to play with a lot of my Kolkata teammates. The kind of team and staff we have, they are all very positive. They have built a good strong team this season,” he said before concluding with a hope that he will have a great time with SRH this year.

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