Will Bangladesh ever be good?

[Richard]

Sri Lanka, who are notoriously poor tourists.

Poor enough to reach the semis at the last WC...

 

[Richard]

They've made giant steps forward recently. There is no question that one day they will be truly competitive.

How on Earth have they made giant steps forward recently?
They've had 1 semi-good ODI series - their first semi-good ODI series ever, pretty much.
They've taken quarter of a step forward and three steps back several times in Tests.

 

[Richard]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet as I haven't bothered to read the preceeding pages, so sorry if anyone has.

NZ did not win a Test until its 45th match. With its poulation and position in a cricket-mad part of the world, Bangladesh surely will come good. Hopefully it's not too far away either.

And this is utterly irrelevant as elevation to Test-cricket was totally different in the 1930s and 1960s than it is today.

 

[Steulen]

Poor enough to reach the semis at the last WC...

Only because NZ refused to go to Kenya and England refused to go to Zimbabwe. Otherwise they wouldn't have gone anywhere near a semi-final spot.
Despite being in the last four they had a poor WC.

 

[Steulen]

Like NZ in 2004\05, you mean?
And SRI LANKA?!?!?!
If Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka in the near future I'll eat my computer.

Yes, Sri Lanka. Take out Murali and the bowling is about equal in quality. Then all it takes is for a few batsmen to do what Sangakarra and Atapattu do...something that is within the reach of Ashraful and Bashar.
i don't know when Sri Lanka are due to tour in Bangladesh, but I predict a close match and possible indigestion for Richard.

 

[Swervy]

Like NZ in 2004\05, you mean?
And SRI LANKA?!?!?!
If Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka in the near future I'll eat my computer.

define near future

 

[Hanuma]

bangladesh have a population of 180,000,000 and their national sport is cricket.

give them some cash to splash and they can be whatever the hell they want to be.

 

[Langeveldt]

bangladesh have a population of 180,000,000 and their national sport is cricket.

give them some cash to splash and they can be whatever the hell they want to be.

uh, if you gave half their population access to clean water then maybe they could think about a game of cricket! For the last time, population means nothing at all...

 

[Hanuma]

err...yes it does.

 

[Langeveldt]

err...yes it does.

Which explains how a country of only sixteen to twenty million have been world beaters for years then...

 

[Richard]

Only because NZ refused to go to Kenya and England refused to go to Zimbabwe. Otherwise they wouldn't have gone anywhere near a semi-final spot.
Despite being in the last four they had a poor WC.

England's refusal to go to Zimbabwe had no bearing on them whatsoever.
If New Zealand had gone to Kenya they might well have got food-poisoning just like Sri Lanka and lost too.

 

[Richard]

Yes, Sri Lanka. Take out Murali and the bowling is about equal in quality. Then all it takes is for a few batsmen to do what Sangakarra and Atapattu do...something that is within the reach of Ashraful and Bashar.
i don't know when Sri Lanka are due to tour in Bangladesh, but I predict a close match and possible indigestion for Richard.

Ashraful and Bashar will get torn to pieces by Maharoof and Malinga probably, never mind Vaas and Zoysa.
Both are utterly rubbish and to compare them to Atapattu and Sangakkara is a gross insult to the latter two.

 

[Richard]

define near future

Say the next 5 years, though quite possibly the next 10.

 

[Richard]

uh, if you gave half their population access to clean water then maybe they could think about a game of cricket!

And never mind the fact that if you gave them cash to splash it'd be better spent on getting some people access to clean water than cricketing facilities...

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Yes, Sri Lanka. Take out Murali and the bowling is about equal in quality. Then all it takes is for a few batsmen to do what Sangakarra and Atapattu do...something that is within the reach of Ashraful and Bashar.
i don't know when Sri Lanka are due to tour in Bangladesh, but I predict a close match and possible indigestion for Richard.

Bangladesh go to SL this winter, and then Sri Lanka go to Bangladesh in February 2008.

 

[Legglancer]

I expect China to beat England before Bangladesh do.. (seeing as they've already klapped the Aussies )

Yes ... If your past performance is anything to go by, We can safely assume that you will bravely hibernate under another rock and not respond for about a year or so ! ( Or at least till the heat get's off your back)

 

[Richard]

I think people need to lay-off Rich here, I had a similar thing with that crickmate idiot not so long ago - don't go accusing people of colonial-idealism when you know nothing about them.

 

[Beleg]

err, what are you talking about Richard?

 

[Richard]

So many people accuse Anglo-people like myself and Rich of being of the old "keep it in the old cricketing nations" mentality... and it couldn't be further from the truth.
Just because we are minorly insulted that ICC have insisted on devaluing Test-cricket by first elevating then refusing to strip Bangladesh of Test status we get lumbered with this rubbish...

 

[Beleg]

How can you say anything you post on here then, without obviously having spoken to the players and watched all the matches of course involved.. Have you seen all the cricketing infrastructure in Bangladesh? Have you ever been there?

I don't expect instantaneous results, merely it would be nice to see them compete in a test match that wasn't against Zimbabwe (the last must have been Multan).. Obviously thats too much to ask, but I guess they have all the time in the world seeing as they won't get dropped from test cricket

I'm going by what some fairly "in the know" people have been saying (such as Dav Whatmore, Chapple etc.).. Don't think I've got some chip on my shoulder and will badmouth them at any oppertunity, I'm inclined to believe what these people are saying, and the results totally prove my point.. I can't for the life think of me how the two tests (yes I'm talking about that forgotten game, test cricket) against England I've just seen shows any sort of improvement, in fact, I don't see how it could get a lot worse..

Because your posts are full of false, not to mention cliche, generalizations. I have made no absolute claims, nor have I argued for or against Bangladesh's inclusion in test circuit. I have merely called you out on your boisterous claims.

For what it is worth, I watched Bangladesh pretty closely from their inaugration (and before that, in Asia Cups) till the Multan test-match. The strides they had taken (specially in fielding and batting) during that period were pretty amazing.

They competed well enough in the Multan test (using their head for example, pitching the ball in the right places etc) and I for once am perfectly okay with that. I am willing to give them 10, 15 years or however long it takes in the test arena to get their foot it. That's how long it took some other teams to get competitive afterall.

Gone, I think, are the days of Akram Khan's and Mehrab Hussain's and half-arsed coaches imported from Pakistan and India - with a good, professional coach and increasing intrest (and investment), not to mention continuous quality exposure there is little doubt that they will flourish.


Afterall, I have to ask, was Zimbabwe's cricket infrastructer during the late 90's, or their domestic teams for that matter, at par with the rest of the world? And look how well (relatively speaking) did they compete.


And you do bad-mouth them at pretty much any opportunity you get, and not all of the digs are amusing or warranted.