Three-and-a-half hours of torture: an eye opener

[Miraz]

Three-and-a-half hours of torture

Bangladesh's decision not to go for the win against Pakistan exposed the biggest flaw in the one-day format and goes against the spirit of the competitive sport
Sidharth Monga
June 22, 2010
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	Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons defended his team's decision not to go for the win against Pakistan © PA Photos
Related Links Bulletin : Afridi's century flattens Bangladesh Players/Officials: Imrul Kayes | Junaid Siddique | Jamie Siddons Matches: Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dambulla Series/Tournaments: Asia Cup Teams: Bangladesh

In affectionate remembrance of ODI cricket, which was killed by Bangladesh at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, 21st June, 2010. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, RIP. NB The body will be cremated and the Ashes brought back to Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium for another tri-series involving India and Sri Lanka, in August 2010.

Bangladesh not only made the longest day of the year feel excruciatingly longer than it was, they also exposed the biggest weakness of 50-over cricket vis-à-vis other formats. If a side refuses to go for a win in Tests, it is automatically fighting for a draw, and thus there is still a contest. If it doesn't want to win a Twenty20, the misery ends in 80 minutes.
Fifty-over cricket, though, has no defence against a side that throws away all shame and pride and doesn't even pretend to be trying to win. What we get then is three-and-a-half hours of meander, during which selfish batsmen bolster their averages. That's what Bangladesh did when chasing 386 against Pakistan, two and six days respectively after India and Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and Pakistan played beauties to suggest there was life in the old dog yet.
Imrul Kayes and Junaid Siddique, so impressive in being the only men to support Tamim Iqbal in England, were the villains on Monday. Kayes didn't open - nay didn't try to open - his account for 23 deliveries. That took care of Tamim, who seemed to rebel against the team plan for 27 deliveries. For the other 273 legal deliveries of the chase - Kayes and Siddique, playing just for themselves, faced 224 of those - Bangladesh sabotaged international cricket.
Between the 13th and 39th over of the innings, three boundaries were hit - two of them unintentional edges and one a consequence of a dropped catch. There was no attempt made either. It wasn't that a certain net run-rate would carry them into the next round. It wasn't as if they had lost five early wickets and the tail was batting. Pakistan actually missed out on a great photo opportunity. They could have put in nine slips and still nobody would have tried to hit.
Jamie Siddons, Bangladesh's coach, actually defended them. "I'm not going to let anyone criticise the team for our approach," he said. "If Tamim had made 150, we could have chased 350-380. That was our plan. He went out there to be aggressive, if he had his day, like [Shahid] Afridi, anything's possible, but Imrul and Junaid had no chance of making 385 off their bat. No chance."
Siddons omitted to talk about international sportsmen's basic obligation towards their own fans and the paying public - of trying for a contest. Thankfully nobody bothers about the Asia Cup, and there is World Cup football on TV.

	The ICC, which did not make sure this tournament was played under proper floodlights, is very fond of fining players who bring the game into disrepute. Will it take any action against Bangladesh, who brought the game to more disrepute than a batsman does when he looks disbelieving upon being given out wrongly?

It wasn't just a one-off either: chasing 359 in their last ODI against South Africa, Bangladesh shut shop as soon as Tamim got out for a 22-ball 41 in the fifth over.
Roughly speaking, to fix a match is to deliberately underperform and lose for money. This wasn't much better. For three-and-a-half hours, one team deliberately didn't make an effort to win. Just that no extra money was made. But going by Siddons' remarks, there was no underperformance here. International cricket and Bangladesh fans deserve better.
"It is ridiculous to say, 'Why didn't you go out slogging?'" Siddons said. "We couldn't have done that without getting all out for another score of 140." Maybe they need a break from international cricket, if slogging is the only way they can go for a stiff target. At any rate, if they had got bowled out for 140, at least the fans would have known their team was trying to do something, and not just batting for their averages. And it is only childish to believe that the same approach will work when Bangladesh are chasing 246 next time. As if the bowling side will then bowl part-timers and not sweat over easy singles being taken.
The ICC, which did not make sure this tournament was played under proper floodlights, is very fond of fining players who bring the game into disrepute. Will it take any action against Bangladesh, who brought the game to more disrepute than a batsman does when he looks disbelieving upon being given out wrongly?

Monday night's events were like putting to sleep a pet that has long been suffering - ODI cricket being the poor mongrel that Bangladesh didn't think worth keeping alive. For their efforts, Kayes and Siddique were rewarded with bloated ODI averages and also cash awards called "Stylish Player of the Day" and "Jodi [partnership] of the Day".
The Bangladesh fans, though, were not happy, and made their displeasure known on internet forums, calling for better doctors, who will not keep putting down pets. The fans fear that this selfish attitude could kill not just ODIs but Bangladesh cricket too

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[Miraz]

Jamioe Siddons from the very beginning didn't believe in our abilities, he termed our wins as flukes and now he is installing the defeatist attitude among the boyd who played fearlessly during their U-19 level and was one of the best team in the world.

This micky mouse cricket must stop. If we cannot have the courage to play competitive cricket, we better stop playing cricket altogether.

BCB must issue a show-cause notice to the team and team management for this cowardly performance.

Unfortunately the Lotus Kamal led BCB itself is a junk.

[Nadim]

"I'm not going to let anyone criticise the team for our approach," he said. "If Tamim had made 150, we could have chased 350-380. That was our plan. He went out there to be aggressive, if he had his day, like [Shahid] Afridi, anything's possible, but Imrul and Junaid had no chance of making 385 off their bat. No chance."

So, he think Tamim is the only one player in the whole team who is capable of winning matches? negative mentality this takku have....

[Zeeshan]

*Opens the door for Sid apologists....*

[Green Tea]

There is no denying the fact that Bangladesh cricket team lost the match very badly against Pakistan cricket team. But I am totally disagree with you on this point "In affectionate remembrance of ODI cricket, which was killed by Bangladesh at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium".

I am really shocked that you totally blame on Bangladesh cricket team on a large scale. They lost one match in utter humiliation and you only want to blame them for the large flaw inside the ODI system and cricket administration.

Bangladesh cricket team come here from middle of the England tour and has to go back England for the rest of the tour. It is quite challenging for any subcontinent team to go England and play descent cricket because of the weather and lively pitch. Consider the temperature now in England 20C but in SriLanka the temperature is 35C. It is very difficult for any team to adjust quickly.

Now, why this is happening? Because of the busyness of the schedule. There is a fixed time slot for the 'wretched' IPL but there is no time slot available for ASIA cup. Because the top ranking Asian countries do not earn much money from ASIA cup. Cricket schedule is so full now because of the twenty20 cricket. The ICC has no guts to stop this nonsense because of the pressure from corrupted cricket administrators. Even we (audience) also forget what is good or bad. IPL match clearly has no excitement because there is not enough quality players and no nationality involved but we have to accept it as a excitement fiesta because of the thousand line written every day by the journalists. They create a virtual reality that this is best of the best which is actually below par. This fiasco creates a negative impact on the audience and they no longer want to see cricket. But unfortunately this fact is always under the veil.

The main dangerous thing is that the cricket administrators do not want to decrease the total number of matches. On the other hand they are not afraid of changing the game rules. Experiment is not bad but over experiment is not appreciable. Consider the 3rd power play rule. This rule is only created for only team strong batting line up. This rule never gives any advantage to the weak teams which is against the spirit of the game. Excitement is part of the game and we all want some excitement from the game because probably we are dissatisfied of our own life. But we must also accept that not every match will be nail biting finish. If this becomes a common routine then where is the excitement.

So, Mr. Sidharth Monga please do not be such a drama queen! Observe the picture in bigger scale.

[Miraz]

Nobody pushed Bangladesh to just turn up for the Asia cup if they cannot compete due to jaded physical state (break-up from England tour etc. etc.).

They should have withdrawn themselves from the Asia Cup and that would have been much better than this humiliation. If you accept the challenge you are obliged to fight in a competitive sports.

[simon]

really bad strategy,& from his comments it seems like he had no faith on Sakib,Mushy,Ryad?
they were not even in the equation,it was all abt TI,Sddq & Kayes.

[Roni_uk]

10 years down the line, we will say it was us (team Bangladesh) who killed ODI cricket

[beshideshi]

I do not agree with what Jamie said, but I clearly see what the thinking process was. I'l ask you guys one question, except Tamim who was capable of winning us yesterday's game? Imrul/Junaid chasing 385? I don't think so. Our slimmest chance of winning evaporated as Tamim got out.
i still did not like the approach one bit, as I said, I would rather see Bangladesh give the game a go and get all out for 185 in 30 overs. It was the mentality rather than the execution which was painful to watch. In my 13-14 years of following cricket, yesterday was one of the most painful, every time Imrul blocked a ball, a little part of me died.

[alibangali]

A big chunk of my heart as an eccentric bd fan died yesterday
I always thought of our cricket being brave and exciting even in defeat
since siddons took over we have been cowardly and the hope of "improving" kept me interest.
Now i have lost hope and under this coach we will not achieve any success.

[beshideshi]

Originally Posted by Miraz
Nobody pushed Bangladesh to just turn up for the Asia cup if they cannot compete due to jaded physical state (break-up from England tour etc. etc.).

They should have withdrawn themselves from the Asia Cup and that would have been much better than this humiliation. If you accept the challenge you are obliged to fight in a competitive sports.

Not only this asia cup, I say we should have cancelled the NZ tour as well. We just landed in NZ and started playing cricket the next day! The difference between getting used to a condition and playing in alien conditions was probably best demonstrated at Lord's. [remember we were bundled below 200 against Surrey(or Essex :\)]

[Tiger444]

Originally Posted by Miraz
Jamioe Siddons from the very beginning didn't believe in our abilities, he termed our wins as flukes and now he is installing the defeatist attitude among the boyd who played fearlessly during their U-19 level and was one of the best team in the world.

This micky mouse cricket must stop. If we cannot have the courage to play competitive cricket, we better stop playing cricket altogether.

BCB must issue a show-cause notice to the team and team management for this cowardly performance.

Unfortunately the Lotus Kamal led BCB itself is a junk.

Lotus Kamal is the main culprit..isn't he the 1 who hired Siddons? I haven't realized all this time but looking at it now Siddons is just not a head coach..this was his 1st job and I have to admit, its a very hard assignment to coach Bangladesh..thats why we see some bits and pieces of Siddons is good but overall he's not a great coach..our batsmen have definitely improved under Siddons but like somebody said they just do not put it together..the main problem is he's very defensive in his approach because he fears that Bangladesh will get humiliated and who knows, it's also to save his job..after all he makes pretty good money and has power so of course he's gonna want the job..the main thing is that a coach is judged by how many games he won and lost and unfortunately Siddons wins have came against the weaker teams only..

The reason I blame Lotus Kamal a lot is because the guy doesn't care about our cricket and is just gonna ruin it..why doesn't he just spend more money for a very good coach with experience? I mean what are you gonna expect when you hand the job to a guy whose never been a head coach? Also wasn't he supposed to hire a CEO? What ever happened to that plan? We like to blame Siddons but we have to be against BCB more..they just are clueless about cricket and just care about their ego..we need people up at the top who care about cricket and not play petty politics..

[BANFAN]

It's time to compile all JS strategies & comments concerning BD cricket & cricket in general, since he took over. Some fans need to revisit some of the threads on JS. I see some of the same old stuff... he is doing a great job....... without showing any reason & justification.

Guys, I know our players are not like the ausies; and that's why we needed a foreign/ausie coach. It's the coach who sets the approach of the team. if they were lying down and taking it, that's a coach's fault. We have seen him doing it in the name of team rules before.

[alibangali]

Originally Posted by BANFAN
It's time to compile all JS strategies & comments concerning BD cricket & cricket in general, since he took over. Some fans need to revisit some of the threads on JS. I see some of the same old stuff... he is doing a great job....... without showing any reason & justification.

Guys, I know our players are not like the ausies; and that's why we needed a foreign/ausie coach. It's the coach who sets the approach of the team. if they were lying down and taking it, that's a coach's fault. We have seen him doing it in the name of team rules before.

No need for a compilation, someone might commit suicide.

[al-Sagar]

Originally Posted by Miraz
Nobody pushed Bangladesh to just turn up for the Asia cup if they cannot compete due to jaded physical state (break-up from England tour etc. etc.).

They should have withdrawn themselves from the Asia Cup and that would have been much better than this humiliation. If you accept the challenge you are obliged to fight in a competitive sports.

i agree with

and in the end they are supposed to be professional cricketers. and as professional cricketers their job is to play cricket. and not playing for fun. playing for the sake of winning.

[Kabir]

Regardless of whatever the BD team did, the CricInfo staff's attitude was extremely poor, and well over the top.

Given that he's an eendian, his attitude towards cricket is well understood - no wonder the idea of 'crementing' made it to the article. Coz anything beyond that, they become painfully dumb and irritating, and fail to make any sense to even an effing monkey.

[thebest]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Regardless of whatever the BD team did, the CricInfo staff's attitude was extremely poor, and well over the top.

Given that he's an eendian, his attitude towards cricket is well understood - no wonder the idea of 'crementing' made it to the article. Coz anything beyond that, they become painfully dumb and irritating, and fail to make any sense to even an effing monkey.

"Crapinfo" would not write those "Non-sense" if we did not give them. those "eeindians" in "Criceendia" praised us only a month ago. So don't blame the critique blame those people who gave them the opportunity. May be I am lower than an effing monkey because it make sense to me and so is to majority of the cricket world

[beshideshi]

Originally Posted by thebest
"Crapinfo" would not write those "Non-sense" if we did not give them. those "eeindians" in "Criceendia" praised us only a month ago. So don't blame the critique blame those people who gave them the opportunity. May be I am lower than an effing monkey because it make sense to me and so is to majority of the cricket world

Well, it's not really CI who bashed us, it was the new guy. I have said this earlier as well, his commentary was atrocious at times. He used horrible words, messed up grammars and gave the worst comments at times. Go through any Asia cup match commentary to gauge the level of stupidity.
And if I am not mistaken, the England match bulletins were mostly written by Andrew Miller, who seems to be a great supporter of BD cricket.

[Kabir]

Originally Posted by thebest
"Crapinfo" would not write those "Non-sense" if we did not give them. those "eeindians" in "Criceendia" praised us only a month ago. So don't blame the critique blame those people who gave them the opportunity. May be I am lower than an effing monkey because it make sense to me and so is to majority of the cricket world

I doubt the same writer would appreciate us in any format. If you followed the live commentary, it was painfully idiotic. I understand that someone could be upset because of the way a team is playing. Totally okay with me. But he was stupid enough to call India's 58/10 a higher achievement.

I wonder if he was ever hugged when he was a kid.

[nahaz]

Originally Posted by Miraz
. "I'm not going to let anyone criticise the team for our approach," he said. "If Tamim had made 150, we could have chased 350-380. That was our plan. He went out there to be aggressive, if he had his day, like [Shahid] Afridi, anything's possible, but Imrul and Junaid had no chance of making 385 off their bat. No chance."
Siddons omitted to talk about international sportsmen's basic obligation towards their own fans and the paying public - of trying for a contest.

1. What kind of f***ing coach are you if your plan for a win for the TEAM is that your star player is going to be at his absolute best and score 150? Are you kidding me? You need a coach for that? Even half the members in this forum would have a better plan than that. You never rely on one player in cricket, especially a batsman. Where's the back-up plan? Why wouldn't Sakib, Riyad, Junaid be able to score at 100+SR? I know why...because you never prepared them for a situation where they take charge of the game.
2. What kind of a f***ing coach says their players are the absolute cream of the craps in every interview? You have coached this team for three years, why couldn't you change the situation? What have YOU done? Why could YOU not do anything to fix our pacers, instead of complaining that we have no Steyn or Lee?
3.When was the last time you did not do an end of match/series interview where you do NOT point your finger at someone? When was the last time you admitted to your own failures? Are you ever going to do it?

How do you sleep at night knowing that the team has been going backwards but you are still eating away at the salary of a thousand Bangladeshis?

[Kabir]

And by the way, by no means am I saying that our approach was correct. The team deserves all the criticism necessary. But don't you think that was mainly due to the wrong approach by Imrul? He's the one who scored a 20-ball single run score. Not Tamim. Junaid was playing fine, although at a lower SR than what would have been ideal. When Junaid gets out on 97, the commentator says something along the lines of good that he didn't get the century...coz he didn't deserve it.

What kinda effing nonsense is that?

[riad]

I have to comment on this issue ...
I was supporting JS until yesterday. I was willing to give him time based on bd cricket culture but now I really think he is not a TOTAL coach and he can not be a decision maker in the team. When I was watching Imrul blocking every ball I knew something is wrong within the team [infighting??]
And some one jus mentioned we were world's best team when these same guys were U19 and I agree 100%. I am watching these same guys for quite a some time and now they don't have 1% of the same spirit left when they were part of U19 team.

Very sad day for bd cricket and I kinda agree to dat "indian writer" .....

Originally Posted by Kabir
And by the way, by no means am I saying that our approach was correct. The team deserves all the criticism necessary. But don't you think that was mainly due to the wrong approach by Imrul? He's the one who scored a 20-ball single run score. Not Tamim. Junaid was playing fine, although at a lower SR than what would have been ideal. When Junaid gets out on 97, the commentator says something along the lines of good that he didn't get the century...coz he didn't deserve it.

What kinda effing nonsense is that?

[gunda]

Agree 100% With this article. ICC needs to fine all these losers. Bangladesh are making mockery of cricket they taking cricket down with them. Boosting part time players average, Giving away easy records which previous generation of players worked hard for. Playing selfish cricket. Losing match after match.
Something needs to be done.

[Beamer]

Yes, it was a torture for neutral eyes, but in the face of absolute certainty , it is always preferable to delay the inevitable. Pakistan was always going to win with after our bowling performance, but at least we have Zunaid etching his name as no.3 in both versions. 1, 2, 3 are set now. Middle order is going through bad patch but that wont last forever. We have quality in Sakib, Mushy and Riyad. Zunaid has effectively displaced Ash ( which was needed ). Ash's void will be filled by Jahurul or Rahim. It serves us no purpose in granting Pakistan a quick victory, though victory was all but certain.

[Miraz]

Beamer, that's a very loyal support to Siddons. I admire your passion for Siddons. I don't think he deserves such a passionate and staunch supporter.

BTW, I don't agree that it was only a torture for the neutrals. I don't count myself as neutral when Bangladesh plays.