Scyld Berry's latest entry: Virgin cricketers face mission impossible

[Arnab]

Virgin cricketers face mission impossible
By Scyld Berry
(Filed: 01/05/2005)

On Saturday the Bangladeshi cricketers arrive for their first tour of England, and so unprepared are they that history will be made at the outset: they will be the first Test team to tour England without a player who has played first-class cricket in this country. That is the measure of how swiftly and unceremoniously the Bangladeshis were dumped in the deep end of international cricket. They are - through no fault of their own - the virgin cricketers.

>>Telegraph Article

[mwrkhan]

Heh, heh, the Telegraph does cut a bit close doesn't it?

[mwrkhan]

Like Scyld though.

[aosaif]

wow.....hope things don't turn out too badly for us

[RazabQ]

likes opera, likes telegraph, hey mwrkhan, I'm beginning to switch over to Arnab's adjective for you

[betaar]

I say it's a good and true but a sad article. I hope we have our performance in ENG to counter that.

[tanvir_nus]

this is one hell of an article, bangladesh bashing to the extreme. Full of his own opinions and concentrated only on past. No mention of the victory against "rebel" players in zimbabwe or india. I guess we have to take blame for our losses too. Hope this time things are different.

[RazabQ]

umm isn't Scyl Berry the apologist who stated it was unfair that when subcontinental teams came to uk they had better curry than at home while English teams in the subcontinent had to deal with the "horrors"?

[mwrkhan]

Originally posted by razabq
likes opera, likes telegraph, hey mwrkhan, I'm beginning to switch over to Arnab's adjective for you

Wasn't my declaration in another thread that I am a card carrying member of the Nirad C. Chaudhury school sufficient indication of that.

[shaoun]

well this guy knows alot about our cricket though. i cannot fully disagree with him. we do not have many test class player. habibur rafique and khaled mashud and maybe masrafee. well ashraful is definitely good but he hasnt played to his potential. i think he will be good in near future. beside them we really dont have anyone else who is test class. and beside rafique and maybe khaled mashud we dont have any world class player in our team. the young guys really needs to step up if we wanna shut these guys mouth.

[obernell]

i don't think its a good article at all, anyone can write this sort of one sided article. its just mean to corner a country that is coming to visit them in less than a month. its sad that we don't have that many articles that talk about much talent we have in our team, and the fact that we are improving dramatically.

this guy reminds me of simon from american idol

[capslock]

Well, the way Berry has built it up anything under a two day demolition by England of Bangladesh will be a let down.

For now we can do nothing except to expect and ignore these sort of articles.

[Zobair]

In a way..this kind of article is good...no one is expecting anything spectacular from us...the atmosphere is much like when we visited Australia...everyone wrote us off...perhaps this is just what our boys need to spur them on. I, for one, despite the overwhelming odds, am hopeful. For the first time in our history we can say that we have a batting line-up that holds real promise for the future...that has more technically good batsmen than ever before...a pretty decent mix, by our standards, of youth, guts, and experience. It will be tough, but we will be touring England approximately 5 years into our test status, and we are not quite the greenhorns that we used to be.

[Mav]

I cant believe some of you agree that its a good article. Only given right statistics doesn`t make an article a good one. Even a school kid can write a well organised article if given the statistics.

Read through and see how prejudicely it has been written. Infact the title itself proves it at the very first that where they are putting a national team.

Talk about facts, condition of Bangladesh.

- Bangladesh cricket structure
- facilities
- games
- A nation 34 years old
- compare with other current test playing nation who took more than 5 years (many) and also more that more than 35 matches (New zealand) to mark their first win.

And only then take the guts to bash a national side.

I sent a feedback to telegraph newspaper against the article. You can do it too, if you agree that this is another another hatred writing by yet another English journalist.

the email ad is - register@telegraph.co.uk .

Up 2 you. I thought it was important to raise the voice as a fan.


Edited on, May 1, 2005, 9:18 AM GMT, by Mav.

[Hasib]

Umm... no Bangladeshi had played 1st class cricket in Australia b4 their 1st tour... no Bangladeshi had played 1st class cricket in WI b4 there 1st tour there ether...

[obernell]

Originally posted by Mav
I cant believe some of you agree that its a good article. Only given right statistics doesn`t make an article a good one. Even a school kid can write a well organised article if given the statistics.

Read through and see how prejudicely it has been written. Infact the title itself proves it at the very first that where they are putting a national team.

Talk about facts, condition of Bangladesh.

- Bangladesh cricket structure
- facilities
- games
- A nation 34 years old
- compare with other current test playing nation who took more than 5 years (many) and also more that more than 35 matches (New zealand) to mark their first win.

And only then take the guts to bash a national side.

I sent a feedback to telegraph newspaper against the article. You can do it too, if you agree that this is another another hatred writing by yet another English journalist.

the email ad is - register@telegraph.co.uk .

Up 2 you. I thought it was important to raise the voice as a fan.


Edited on, May 1, 2005, 9:18 AM GMT, by Mav.

very impressive. i've got a lot of work to do, but i'll do what i can. we can't let these guys put this sort of articles on the net....

[Spitfire_x86]

This is a good biased article in a sense that the author provided enough point to prove his view.

However in the end, it's only another propaganda against Bangladesh cricket.

[mwrkhan]

Look at this way, as Pompous has indicated, Berry is just restating the prevalent feelings in England about the BD tour. Nobody is even setting us any thresholds to cross. All we have to do is to put up a semi-decent performance, not even that ..... a few of our players will have to put on a good show and prove that we CAN play cricket. It would be nice if we could win a game or two on the county circuit though.

BTW Razabq, N.C. Chaudhury was also a telegraph columnist for 28 years!

[Sam]

This is a typical article by a certain group of people, who do NOT tolerate the upcoming of new Asian country in test arena.
He wrote: "They dumped Bangladesh into Test cricket in November 2000 when they were weekend clubbies who had yet to find their feet in one-day internationals", which is nothing but a rubbish from the writer. He should know that, although at that time we did not have a first class tournament (of 4-day matches), but there was a regular Dhaka Cricket League with regular schedule (not weekend clubbies), where even their batsman (Neil Fairbrother) used to play.
Berry does not consider anybody other than Habib as a world class batsman, where as his compatriot is highly praising (in another thread) English batsman Robert Key, whose rank is 5 below than that of Ashraf with a lagging of 7 rating points.
Berry should keep in his mind, that with the same group of "weekend club" players, “who have no experience in English conditions” fought back against big powerhouse like Pakistan and West Indies.
Anyway, as my signature says, let's prove ourselves and shut their mouths forever.

[Spitfire_x86]

Also note these lines,

If you think Bangladesh's Test record is none too dazzling, in one-day games against Test countries, apart from Zimbabwe, they are trailing 74-2, and one of those two wins occurred in the 'iffiest' match in cricket history.

Does he indicate something about match fixing?

They dumped Bangladesh into Test cricket in November 2000 when they were weekend clubbies who had yet to find their feet in one-day internationals ( they still haven't, as shown by their results and the statistic that a single one-day century has been hit for Bangladesh, and that was against Zimbabwe, and by a player not on this tour)

Mehrab Hossain scored that century against the strongest Zimbabwean side in the history. That team went to super 6 in WC1999 without walkovers, won their first overseas test series against Pakistan after WC1999, and was very competitive even against Austraia in ODIs.

This article is a mixture of some logical points/facts and some BS. Nice read for Bangladeshi cricket haters, and painful for the BD cricket fans because there's some truth in this article. Performing in the field is the only way to silence these hateful writers.

Edited on, May 1, 2005, 12:49 PM GMT, by Spitfire_x86.

[tanvir_nus]

Originally posted by Mav
I cant believe some of you agree that its a good article. Only given right statistics doesn`t make an article a good one. Even a school kid can write a well organised article if given the statistics.

And only then take the guts to bash a national side.

I sent a feedback to telegraph newspaper against the article. You can do it too, if you agree that this is another another hatred writing by yet another English journalist.

the email ad is - register@telegraph.co.uk .

Up 2 you. I thought it was important to raise the voice as a fan.


Edited on, May 1, 2005, 9:18 AM GMT, by Mav.

It doesn't take anyone to bash us. We are the weakest team remember? We have lost badly time and time again. I know the best way to answer this bashing is to wait for results but I am not going to sit and watch some prejudiced guy talk one sidedly about the our test status. I did my part replying to the post, you do yours. Just when will these people get a life

[Andrewwisden]

I'm afraid I would hardly classify this as "bashing". I think it is a very fair article that wishes the players luck while slamming the administators for the circumstances of Bangladesh's elevation - which, I think even the most partisan fan would agree came too soon.

Remember that this article is directed at an English audience, and seeing as Bangladesh have never even toured in a first-class capacity, most of the Telegraph's readers will have no idea what has gone before in Bangladesh's Test history. Scyld is simply bringing them up to speed

If this offends, then you wait until some of the less informed commentators get stuck in this summer.

[oracle]

The article is fine as it is if the intention is to slam the ICC . But as a regular Telegraph reader i am not sure if I would like to know more about "Bangladesh" the Cricket team. They really seem a waste of time

Edited on, May 1, 2005, 2:25 PM GMT, by oracle.

[Spitfire_x86]

Thanks for posting in this thread, Andrew.

Whatever this guy wants to say, BD cricket was never based on "weekend clubbies'' before gaining Test status.

[CTazim]

The [edited] British media can kiss my tush and Scyld can print his online report and wipe [edited - we get the point] . And the Bangladeshis who still suffer from inferiority complex should consider some psych-consult.

Edited on, May 1, 2005, 5:16 PM GMT, by razabq.
Reason: Let's be civil and not make blanket, bigoted statements. Some British media actually visit the site. Knowing that you are a very respected poster, I assume you just lost it momentarily there