The Story
Bangladesh promising off spinner Sanjit Saha has found himself in a potentially worrisome stage early in his cricketing career. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) recently named Saha as one of the four cricketers with suspect bowling action in the latest edition of Dhaka Premier League in 2017.
Sanjit along with Nuruzzaman Masum [Partex], Asif Ahmed Ratul [Prime Bank] and Shafiul Hayat [Victoria Sporting Club] will undergo bowling action review in the first week of August, a BCB official said.
Set to Join the National Team in the Nets
Sanjit will be travelling to Dhaka on Tuesday (August 1) to join the national team preparation camp from tomorrow [August 2] ahead of the upcoming home series against Australia. He has been brought down to the venue after request of the national team management.
“We have decided to review their bowling action in the coming week,” Nasir Ahmed, BCB’s management information system (MIS) manager told Cricbuzz on Tuesday.
“As far as Sanjit is concerned he seemed to be going back to his old pattern and we need to make sure that is not the case considering his enormous amount of potential,” he added.
Sanjit attracted the attention of the ICC Authorities during the tour of India prior to the Under-19 World Cup hosted in Bangladesh in 2016. He was reported to be having a suspect action in the opening match of the tour against host South Africa. The questions over his legality did not allow him to further take part in the tournament.
“I am not sure what went wrong because for the first eight games there was no problem with my action,’ said Sanjit. “I need to understand my problem and rectify it immediately because it is something that can severely dent my progress that had already been halted after I was found to be guilty during the ICC Under-19 World Cup. Let’s see what can be done but I am confident to find a way out,” he said.
“Still this problem of having illegal bowling action haunts me because it had made me lose the opportunity to represent my country in the Under-19 World Cup,” he added.
Rehabilitation Partially Successful
After the call from the ICC, Saha was engaged in his rehabilitation program whilst playing in the Dhaka Premier League. The efforts were fruitful, as he successfully passed the bowling action review conducted under the supervision of BCB’s newly-formed bowling review committee in 2016.
According to the coaches, there is a lot of pressure that clubs sometimes try to put on the players during the 50-over tournament, and the young off-spinner might have just fallen prey to that.
“At times to restrict the run rate you are asked to bowl flatter and faster and it can be the case with him,” said a coach. “He had a problem with his faster deliveries when he was initially found out as a bowler with suspect bowling action,” he said.
Sanjit showed good progress during the Bangladesh’s first-class competition National Cricket League after His DPL stint. He played the opening eight games without any trouble was later found guilty of an illegal bowling action in the ninth match for Kalabagan, pointing out the fact that the young cicketer is still vulnerable to future issues.