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Originally Posted by Dhurr
Can you?
When I say unbiased observer, I mean someone who is not rooting for or against Bangladesh. That would rule out pretty much anyone in this forum. Explain to such a person why Bangladesh should retain its test status. Please try to keep the emotional posts to a minimum and hopefully, we will have a good thread.
Personally, the best reason I can think of is a Bushesque "stay the course". Please state your reasons.
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emotional reponse:
ALL of the BD players should be drafted into the US army and sent to afghanistan without body armor, guns, food, or a map. all active BC members, myself included, should be hung from a noose to take us out of our misery.
rational response:
all teams with the exception of pakistan struggled in their initial decades at test cricket. the fact that bangladesh is also the only team that did not EARN test status indicates that we would only do worse. much worse. that much should be expected.
of course we will continue to hear the propoganda that india and NZ drew many of their matches, etc, etc. and the truth is that india was a much stronger team in relation to their opponents than we are. that much is obvious, and we don't dispute that. however, the point is that india and NZ both became stronger in the course of time (a lot of time). in the absense of a strong domestic structure, which is a chicken and egg thing, btw, and without naturally athletic genes, time is the only thing which can help bangladesh. its actually quite stupid to think bangladesh should be a strong team in just 8 years, no matter how many tests are played. the added burden of 2020s is also killing our team. IMO, BCB should strip Bangladesh of their 20-20 status, that form of the game won't help us in any way shape or form, cricket wise or financially. it will only ruin what little temperemtn and technique we have.
in short, we simply cannot physically avoid today's situation of being 97-8 against south africa. this has nothing to do with temperement, per se. we are not used to facing 6 foot 6 inch tall fast bowlers throwing down short balls at 150 k. so even if they aren't doing it, we already have that fear. its a natural thing, and there is no real reason or benefit in "blaming" the batsman. it took subcontinent teams 160 collective years of playing Test cricket before someone one a match at Perth (india last year). 160 years. its not a coincidence that india, pakistan, and sri lanka lost matches there for 160 years. and we expect the genetically miniscule bangalis to compete against the likes of steyn and morkel in south africa? clearly, expectations are insane. pakistan has had supreme fast bowlers, and yet they've never won at perth. sri lanka even today, often retreats to a shell away from home.
bottom line is, yes, we suck more than anyone else has ever sucked, but we aren't the only ones who have ever sucked.
the only way we can fix things, is to forget about our NCL, forget about international 20-20s, and continue to play Test and ODIs against both top teams, and occaissionally against minnows. we must find players with the skill set to succeed on bouncy tracks, as well as our home tracks and find ways to get them to play all their non-international matches away from bangladesh on greentops, on bouncy tracks, on fast wickets. that is the only way we can overcome the fear or steyn or morkel on hard pitches.
we also need a psychologist. NOW.
as i type, mushy and shahadat are putting on 24 runs for the 9th wicket.
more than any of the top order batsman managed. this indicates that in addition to our baseline inability, is a profound mental weakness amongst the top order. the top order plays to their potential only when demoted to the lower order and when wickets have tumbled up front. put ashraful at #7 instead of #4, and i gurantee you his mean score (not batting average) but his average runs per innings, will increase at least two-fold. there is a cavalier immaturity which never ceases to infect any of our top order. i thought tamim and raqib were different, but i am sure they will react the same. we need to sort out the mental bullshit ASAP.
to be honest, i don't think the BCB knows what to do and so they are continuing or will continue the failed policies of the past. someone should inform them of what to do.