Playing as a unit makes captaincy easier: Sohan

Rangpur Riders captain Nurul Hasan Sohan, who was well praised for his innovative captaincy in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) underlined the importance of playing as a unit to make the captain’s task easier one.

‘I am lucky to have a group that gelled together nicely,” Sohan told the BSS during an exclusive conversation. “It doesn’t matter how many top players or star players you have in your team. What is important is to play as a team. That’s the mantra of the success.”

“Personally I rate playing as a team more crucial than the individual performance. There will be ups and downs and not 11 players will play good cricket simultaneously. But if we can stay as a team, it will be beneficial in many ways.”

Sohan, as a captain, got a glowing praise from his head coach Mickey Aurther and assistant coach Mohammad Ashraful. Both of them has dubbed him as the dynamic leader who can motivate well the players in on and off the field.

He led Rangpur Riders to win Global Super League (GSL) trophy in Guyana, West Indies in December. Five franchises from different countries took part in the event. Despite losing the first two matches, Rangpur eventually clinched the trophy by beating Australian domestic team Victoria in the final.

He also is leading the side astutely in the ongoing BPL and made Rangpur heavily favourite to win the trophy. So far his side won all eight matches they played.

“The tournament has been going well for us. We are at the halfway of the tournament at this moment but what is important is to keep focus on it,” he said, adding that he got full support from his players, team management and owners.

“Captaincy is easier when all of your 14 or 15 players think about the team and work on same goal. When everyone thinks about the team and takes the responsibility, the captain basically has nothing to do,” Sohan said.

“That’s why when I take the captaincy of any team, I want to make sure that I will take the players who think about the team. As I said earlier, rather than the big names, I prefer the player who plays for the team only,” he said.

“When everyone thinks about the team, he can actually take the responsibility of other. Everyone can contribute significantly. It’s not important that you have to play a big knock always,”

“Sometime a mere 20 runs could be vital. Sometimes a catch could be vital, sometimes, saving a one run could be vital. That’s what we call as contribution for the team. So basically it’s a team game. When everyone thinks like that, the captaincy become easier.”

“I am lucky that my franchise is excellent. They gave me the freedom and help me in every possible way. My head coach Mickey Aurther and assistant coach Mohammad Ashraful help me a lot in this regard. We got a happy family in Rangpur team.”

Rangpur Riders has been excellent as franchise since it joined BPL and consistently forming a formidable team that has all ingredients to win trophy. But they have just one BPL trophy to show and in the last two seasons, they made exit from the playoffs, despite playing dominating cricket in the group phase.

Sohan said this is the issue they have been trying to fix.

“We had a formidable team in the last two years and yet we couldn’t win the trophy. We had played well in the group stage before being knocked off in the knock out phase,” he said.

‘We talked about this issue in our dressing room. I have told all my teammates that we have a long way to. We are playing good cricket in the group phase in this season also.

I told them, our main goal is to play well in the knock out phase. So we need to carry the momentum throughout the tournament,” he remarked.

In the last two seasons, Rangpur didn’t get the service of some vital foreign players in the playoffs, which is one of the main reasons of their exit, said Sohan.

“The problem is that in the last two seasons, we couldn’t play with same team till the last. We had a settled team in the group phase but when we started playoffs, some players left the team because of their other commitment. Their departure broke the cohesion of the team.”

But this year, Rangpur will play the whole tournament with the same team, Sohan informed.
“This year, we’ll get all foreign players till the last. So we can expect something better in this season.” (BSS)