Asia is a continent of many different cultures, particularly when it comes to sport. Some nations are adept at football, others prefer hockey. Japan is baseball and sumo mad. Sure, some nations are not good at what they do, but they’re in there living an impossible dream to take their game to the very top level of their sport.
This brings me to the story of the Bangladesh cricket team. It’s fair to say that they’ve had more knockers than Harry Kewell has in his spell at Liverpool. Some experts tell the world to give them time to improve. Others who think they know the game like their backyard believe that they should be given the flick. Some people who know jack-shizen about the game think that the figures from opposition players should not be added to their career figures.
However, I stumbled upon a very good article on the Cricinfo site from Rabeed Iman stating the plight from a Bangladeshi’s perspective. (You can read what he said at http://content.cricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/story/210887.html) It gave me the ammunition to start my own little crusade about preserving the status of a nation gripped by the game of cricket.
Several suggestions have been mentioned regarding Bangladesh and their future in the game’s elite. However, none of them is going to do any good for the game. What good would it be to send Bangladesh (and for that matter, Zimbabwe) to play a bunch of amateur no-hopers from tiny places that the common cricket fan has never heard of? NONE WHATSOEVER. What good would it be to have a two-tiered system in test cricket? NONE WHATSOEVER (Tier A would be Australia, everyone else in Tier B, sounds ridiculous)
Like Iman states in his article, try telling the players that you won’t be playing any more tests until they’re good enough. Well what does the common fan expect, an opening batsman to average 50 against the best bowlers in the world? Sure, they may not be as talented or skilled as players from other nations, but it appears that people have been so brainwashed by the standard that Australia continue to set that the expectation is for everyone else to perform at that level every match. It’s just not possible nor is it realistic for a team who it’s fair to say is continuing to enhance their education in the game.
It doesn’t help when the press are always on their back. Not once have I seen a positive word written or heard a positive word spoken by a journalist of credibility in the cricket world (Bangladesh writers apart). Naturally, the players and officials are saying they don’t take any notice, but you know that it’s a load of BS. It’s almost as if there’s a directive against a good performance from a Bangladesh player. I can imagine the writers and editors saying, ‘Oh no, we can’t write about Javed Omar’s 50 today because we’re supposed to bag the shit out of Bangladesh for a crap performance.’ If that happens, then I would be personally inclined to resort to violence if it means that a positive story is written on the minnows of world cricket.
One last thing on the subject of their beatings. Perhaps they do get thumped by an innings most occasions. But are you meant to tell me that when Pakistan and the West Indies perform consistenly poorly as they do that they are more than capable at test level? I hope that any journo reading this (which I doubt, but here’s hoping anyway) stops writing as if they have double standards. We don’t believe all the bullshit that comes from you, so leave Bangladesh alone.
