Bangladesh likely to appoint a sports psychologist

BCB’s game development and women’s wing chairman decided to approve the request made by medical teams of the sides wanting to have a sports psychologist in their set up.

"We have got the approval today by BCB game development and women's wing and it has been decided that we will bring the under-19s and Women's sides under the purview of these psychologists as soon as possible,” Debashish Chowdhury, BCB Chief Physician was quoted as saying. “For now, we’re thinking of a professional psychologist to give mental support to the women and U-19 cricketers. All will be arranged when the matter is finalized in our meeting . I have heard that the chairman of the women's department is also positive about this.”

It is understood that online sessions will be conducted with both groups of players in order to assess their mental health. The aim of these sessions is to try and keep the players motivated since they have been stuck indoors for the last four months.

Ali Khan, a sports psychologist, who has worked with Bangladesh cricketers in the past, would conduct sessions with the women and under-19 squads. In the future these sessions would be conducted for the high performance units too.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wIV5plfHhXuX9kotfATXW?si=05TtCd4DSD2Zf9oKDaYIXg

"And we have plans in the future to gradually bring high performance and the national team under the purview of these sessions. But we're taking a look at how these work on a test basis. While our primary discussion with him is over and he said that he wanted three to five sessions, we had to discuss some more of these technical issues with him. We want to do this in three sessions and if someone needs a separate special session, we will arrange a separate special session for them."

"We're starting this way, but that doesn't mean we don't need a sports psychologist. If needed then we will obviously include that in future. But at the moment we think that the mental trainer will be more appropriate,” Chowdhury concluded.

A total of five sessions have been planned with groups of 25 players in each session.