Dave Haughton opens his mouth to BD

[fwullah]

Zimbabwe offers rookies lessons


Houghton enjoyed many successes with Zimbabawe



By Matthew Allen
BBC Sport Online



Ten years ago this month Zimbabwe played their first Test and confounded their critics by having the better of a drawn match against a strong Indian side.
Captain David Houghton scored his country's first Test century as India were made to toil in Harare.

Houghton, who is now head of Zimbabwe's academy, has fond memories of how his side proved the doubters wrong.



Bangladesh don't look like they are ready to be entering the Test arena

David Houghton
"We felt that the rest of the world did not want us in Test cricket," he recalls.

"There were comments that we would bring down the standard of cricket, but we used that as an inspiration rather than something to be scared of.

"The result exceeded our expectation because we went into the game hoping to prove that we could play for five days.

"We did not think we could win but we were on the top of a draw.

"It was a fantastic result when you consider that the team was so unstable that we were picking players at midnight the previous day."

Houghton feels that Zimbabwe were far better prepared for Test cricket then Bangladesh are now.


Bangladesh still have a lot to learn

India were easy victors by nine wickets when Bangladesh played their first Test two years ago.

They were roundly thrashed by Zimbabwe in their next two Tests and face South Africa having yet to record a win in 13 matches.

"Bangladesh don't look like they are ready at this stage to be entering the Test arena.

"They just don't have the players to come up with a plan against South Africa. The difference between the talent in the two sides is like chalk and cheese.

"When we started to play Test cricket we had played 12 years against under-21 sides from Australia, the West Indies and India.

"So we had already played against these Test players as they were emerging, and it was hard cricket."



People only remember the Tests that you have won

David Houghton
Houghton feels that Bangladesh should slow down and switch their focus from trying to win matches to learning how to play Test cricket.

"They should lessen the amount of Tests they play and play more at home where they are more comfortable and try to eke out five days every game," he said.

"We played our first 10 matches trying to prove to everybody that we could play for five days. We didn't even look for victories at that stage.

"Once those first 10 matches were out of the way we decided that we would rather lose six or seven and win one than draw nine and lose one.

"So our attitude changed changed a little bit and we started to win the odd Test match.

"People only remember the Tests that you have won, not the ones you have lost or draw - especially for new countries."

Source: BBC Sports Online

[Tehsin]

We never do that do we ?
I do appreciate his remarks though. There's little chance (let's say - NONE) that BCB would listen to regular Joe's like us when formulating a plan (let's assume they have one) when preparing for a test match. But, when it comes from former test player/current coaches, they ought to pay heed, right ?
We usually don't play for a win but what we did try to do is play for 4 days and then extend it to day five. That should be our goal in SA in this series. BAT as long as you can (hope Golla and Sanwar are listening and if we had Ash, he could have gone on long too - all we needed to do is ask the boy genius to stay in their and not try to hit a single ball and he has proved that he is more then capable of doing that).

What scares me is that our players failed to make good use of the four day practice match. I was hoping some sensible batting from them against a weak side like county districts but instead, they went on and lost quick early wickets and scored only 260 and a horrible 151 all out in two innings.

If I was the coach, I would have catrasized the whoele team for that. Apart from Sanwar and Pilot, we had NOTHING. None of them had the foresight to see what a great opportunity this was for us to PRACTICE staying in the crease for long hours. Who was it that said - If you just hang in there, RUNS WILL COME. Runs will come, they always do.

Watching the kenyans, it's obvious that they go for the big ones, they score real fast and burn quickly but if Sandeep Patel had asked his players to hold on, I am pretty sure they would. How come our players don't have that decipline ? It's apparant that they don't listen. What do we need to make them listen to the coach or grasp the focal point of all this. We are in a learning curve right now and you learn from your mistakes unless you happen to be a Bangladesh cricket player. At least that's what the players have been telling us for the last couple of years.

[Pundit]

Yes, yes, if we get lucky, hopefully Khaled Mashud will be speaking out against the doubters 10 years from now, or is it 25 years from now ?

Quick, someone get Mashud's thoughts taped right now then.