[Sham]

I know very well how many years and how many Tests it took New Zealand! Two things to say about that. One, New Zealand didn't lose the number of Tests we lost and definitely not by the kind of margins we lost by. Secondly, we got a tad bit lucky with the Zimbabwe crisis, otherwise it might have taken us a year or two longer. But winning a Test match in 5 years as opposed to 26 is not the point. The point is, there is a big gap between the rest of the Test cricketing nations (Zimbabwe apart) and Bangladesh.

As to the rest of what you wrote, can you please define ability? Aren't technique, shot selection and judgement all a part of ability? You say, getting out in similar fashion several times is not lack of ability, but lack of shot selection and judgement. Well, what is ability distinct from shot selection and judgement? Ability includes all those things! You can say, ability means being able to play the shot. But what good is being able to play a shot if you don't know when to play it?

The thing is, I am a blind supporter of Bangladesh like everyone else. But being an unconditional supporter doesn't mean that we shouldn't be objective in our analysis of our team. We may want to believe many things, but the truth is, till now, our batsmen have not been up to playing Test cricket. Like I said, that might change with Ashraful, Nafees, Rajin, Aftab but thats a different matter!

Edited on, February 26, 2005, 3:56 PM GMT, by Sham.