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Old March 28, 2010, 03:38 AM
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Miraz Miraz is offline
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Default Another Scyld Berry Piece: this time with a slightly different tone

I am skipping the first few paragraphs on England's achievement from this series.

Bangladesh tour: lessons for Alastair Cook, England and the world


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BANGLADESH
World cricket needs Bangladesh – not the weedy Test team that kept losing for their first decade of premature Test status – but a vibrant Bangladesh in all formats, which can be achieved, given the right kind of help.
The pluses are considerable. The country has a population of 160 million for whom cricket is the main sport. Their regular cricket press corps is as large as that of any country, with a growing newspaper circulation. The finest cricket writing outside English is in Bengali. And they have three players of real international class in the opener Tamim Iqbal, all-rounder Shakib al Hasan and batsman/keeper Mushfiqur Rahim. When they are playing well, Bangladesh adds to the gaiety of Test nations a distinctive flair – part-Asian, part-West Indian – that is more than the boldness of youth, and should be nurtured.
Annul Bangladesh from the Test records before this year if needs be, but do not remove Test status now – those three leading cricketers are good enough to show the way, and have a decade ahead of them.
But Bangladesh keep falling between stools, poor in every format. What they should do, therefore, is concentrate on the short forms of 20- and 50-over cricket, in which some success can be more quickly achieved. Meanwhile, they should be encouraged – financially helped – to make A tours to countries with better, bouncier pitches than their own, so they can play first-class, four-day cricket away from the limelight. There they can start to work on their biggest failing and learn how to bat for long periods (it is some condemnation that their longest individual Test innings was played in their inaugural Test in 2000). Interspersed between these tours can be the occasional Test series against lighter opposition, such as their next series of two Tests at home to New Zealand in October.
As half the population is malnourished, other countries with Bangladeshi communities have to help by identifying and encouraging pace bowlers and referring them to Dhaka. Also, using pitches of coir matting (made from local coconut fibre) below first-class level would benefit native bowlers and batsmen, because they have pace and bounce if laid correctly.
For while Bangladesh could be sometimes, even consistently, competitive on their own slow pitches, they are going to be cut down like the Light Brigade when the ball seams and swings, as it will if Lord's is cloudy in late May, or if it bounces, as it will at Old Trafford in early June. Bangladesh need help, of the right kind, which has not been forthcoming so far, but they can do it long-term.
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