[Zeeshan]

Tread softly, for here lies the immortals.

One wonders if a similar quote can be found as one enters the pantheon of the game where resides the sages of the game with ODI career runs above 10,000.

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Jamie Siddons used to say that Bangladesh National Team does not have match winners. Whether it was an excuse or not, the point remains that the team's #1 individual with highest career runs is actually the lower of the tier.

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Shakib-al-Hasan, although may have enjoyed the #1 ODI all-rounder spot, will not even sniff near the top-tiered players. And who else is the squad besides the next, run-getter Tamim Iqbal, an inconsistent Ashraful and Mushfiqur with a meagre 2000+ runs.

While players like Sachin and Jayasuria have been playing for 20 years, for the Bangladeshi players to reach the top of the totem-pole, would realistically require that much time even if the players like Mushfiqur and Shakib were to play for 10 matches a year, scoring a 50 in each match with an aggregate of 1000 runs a year. These are of course just pulling numbers out of thin air, but it does help to put things into perspective.

Sachin, Ponting, Jaya, Kallis, Ganguly et al. have already reached the point where they have trained their muscle memory and reflexes to process a move automatically for the optimum shot. They have seen all the in's-and-out's of the game, and just like the adage goes in chess, "To the beginner's mind there are many options, but to the master, few." These are few, but the best possible moves.

Yes, experience matters a lot.

And even if experience does not speak volumes, it has to be the way these prodigies moved up the ranks. They have scored enough 50s and 100s, that just like yesterday's match where Amla (who by no means at the top of the tier), an 88 odd runs does not seem too unusual off the norm, while for a BD player, a 50 tends to be a gift.

It's no wonder, Sachin being at the top of the tier, holds also the record for second-highest ODI score of 200* runs. His teammate Sehwag also spoke of maturity that comes after 10 years of play the game.

Right now, Shakib and Tamim has 3000+ runs each. You cannot possibly expect a team with only 2 major players to form the inner core, while at the same time wishing that they will pile drive the opponent. That's just pure wishful thinking. Numbers don't lie, and according to numerical conspiracies, a neutral fan has every right to predict that a team consisting of players with 8000 or more runs will come up as the better one on any given day.

These are really common sense stat-interpretation. Yet, so often we emotional Bangladeshi fans wish that we will taste yet another miracle where the Tigers just cruise through a series earning every accolades imaginable. Such is and will not be the case.

And yes, naively by the time the team progresses to the level where almost five or six players are equipped with plenitude of runs, the rest of the world will also catch up. Sure, Bangladesh may have had a slow start being a relatively new team, but the fact of the matter is it will be another 10-12 years where our players reach the level of mastery to dominate series and bring home the World Cup.

EDIT: I must say the list of the highest ODI run-getters consists of retired players mostly. So I may have conflated the akaash-patal description.