The Corridor

Recent Posts

PLEASE NOTE The Corridor is moving grounds at the moment. This is the old site, and comments have been disabled. Check back tomorrow and we should be safely ensconced at our new home


Bangladesh’s tour of England

By Will 4 years ago, mid-May Leave a comment on this post

Bangladesh Cricket Board

Maybe there has, maybe there hasn’t - but in my eyes, a lot seems to have been made today of a Bangladeshi making a hundred. Every time I turned on the news, on the TV or radio, a presenter screamed out “Bangladesh kicked off their tour of England in style today as Javed Omar scored a hundred.”

Without sounding condecending - and I regretfully admit I know bugger all about the Bangladeshi team - a hundred against a Combined University XI isn’t much to write home about, but it made me wonder: how many hundreds will Bangladesh score by the time their tour ends at the end of June?

They’re due to play Sussex, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire and Worcestershire - in that order - as well as 2 Tests against England and a clutch of “triangular ODIs” against England and Australia. I hope for their sake they show some improvement, and class and some potential. I really struggle in writing and talking about “minnow” countries because I can’t reason whether I think they should be playing International cricket or not. On the one hand, they’re gaining invaluable experience playing against better nations. On the other, they’re reducing the overall quality of international cricket…and in doing so, in getting hammered so easily and so often, their confidence gets dented more than double-parked car on a busy London street.

Way back last Christmas, Mark Nicholas wrote about “The Great Divide” in cricket:

The International Cricket Council have done untold damage by allowing
Zimbabwe and Bangladesh Test-match status. Their presence lowers
standards and diminishes an already fragile product. Test-match
performances have been cheapened and do a disservice to those who have
gone before. True, there have been other eras when series have been
uneven but never to this extent.

I want more countries playing cricket. I want cricket to have greater worldwide sporting respect. I want cricket’s international teams to improve, and not for one team to run away with all the successes (guess who). Arguably it could be said there’s now 3 divisions in international cricket: Australia on their own in Division 1, England and the other obvious countries in Division 2, and New Zealand in division 3. Sorry! Couldn’t resist. Zim, Bang, Kenya - all those minnows - occupy the 3rd division.

Anyway, perhaps I should wait until I see Bangladesh perform in the 2 Tests. Dave Whatmore tells us we’re in for a big suprise, after all, but then covers his backside, you know, just in case the suprises don’t quite jump out at us:

“It [success] is measured in other areas. Essentially we want to show progress and push the opposition as hard as we can, and there will be objectives both for individuals and the team as well.”

Well, Whatmore, if that’s what you tell your players then you ought to be sacked. In other words - “ok lads, we’ve lost. (AGAIN). But don’t worry. Omar: you nearly caught that sitter. Mohammad - yes you missed a straight one, but you’ll know now for next time.” I’m exaggerating; however the only way for Bangladesh is up. They need to attack, attack, attack: winning = progress.

Oh, and let’s have a sportsmen’s bet about how many hundreds the Bangas will score (in all their games). I’m going for 5.

Tags: , , , , , |

3 Responses to “Bangladesh’s tour of England”

  • AKR wrote:
    May 11th, 2005 at 2.47 am

    It is really is a dodgy one, this, about minnows. The pont is there is nothing achieved by demoting them to a second rung, till a system is created where the second rung actually gives them (and other nations) genuinely helpful exposure. The sort that will truly entitle them to go up to Test Level as worthy teams. And there is no sight of that system being in place at all.

    As for Bangladesh, don’t expect them to win anything. We can hipe for a fight, though; and a fight in this case means nto being hammered senseless. There can be some gritty performances expected from the likes of young Ashraful, Mortaza the sort-of all rounder, I guess Omar and possibly Mohd Rafique and Enamul Haque jr’s left arm spin.
    As for the number of tons they’ll get?
    Umm- I’d say 1, or none.

  • Will wrote:
    May 11th, 2005 at 10.54 pm

    Good point about the need for “something” (anything) before demotion to a 2nd rung. I’m sure we’ll be hearing and reading more once the series gets underway (2 weeks today)

  • Sid wrote:
    June 19th, 2005 at 4.40 pm

    There might be a need for having a three tier system that you have proposed here, but at the end of the you are contradicting your own notion that you want more and more people to play cricket.

    Bangladesh is a team which may not performing as per the expectations of the Cricket greats, but at the same time, you also have to see the other side of the coin, top level countries like Australia didn’t start winning the test matches from the very beginning, they had to wait years and play hundreds of test. But compared to that, Bangladesh won their first test series this year (2005) against Zimbabwe, and also on the 20th, became David by slaying the Cricket Goliath Austtralia by 5 wickets. Before writing off a team, you should consider all the factors. Cricket is a game played by a handful of nations. In the interest of the game itself, more and more nation should be encouraged to play cricket, and the only way to do that is not to show a dismissive attitude, but to comment on how up coming nations can improve and how they can play more tests and ODIs. The present Bangladesh team has players with an average age of 21. there are players who hold records for the youngest test century, and also there are giant killer bowlers. What Bangladesh now needs to support from all the test playing nation, whther it be England, or Australia. Cricket is a Gentleman’s game- but I wonder is it a British Gentleman’s game, or True Gentleman’s game.


    • « So you think you know cricket? | Main | Police replacing umpires - ICC takes tough stance »