External Item: Bracewell on Bangladesh on

[Zunaid]

Moi: The title of the article does not convey the general positive tone of Bracewell's comments. Of course, 10 years too long, hein?


Read on:

Cricket: Bangladesh decade away from parity - Bracewell

5:00AM Wednesday January 02, 2008
By David Leggat


John Bracewell. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey



Fast forward 10 years and what state will Bangladesh cricket be in?
John Bracewell reckons they could be on a par with most of the test-playing nations, including New Zealand.
As Bangladesh prepare for the first of two tests in Dunedin starting on Friday, the indications are the series is unlikely to require the full 10 days.
The Bangladeshis are well short of New Zealand in all-round skill and experience, as was amply demonstrated during the 3-0 ODI series sweep by the hosts.


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[al Furqaan]

to think about it, 10 years is not too long. add the 7 we have and thats 17 years total after test status (which we got waaay to early, but catalyzed our development).

how long did it take SL to get competitive not to mention zimbabwe or NZ - all of whom were far better than us when they got test status, so they all had head starts.

17 years, or 10 more years, is not too long at all. especially if ash, aftab, and co. can get us a few test wins here and there in addition to winning a good many ODIs.

[Eshen]

Al Furqaan, SL, in her early years, had done much much better than Bangladesh has done so far. She had beaten India and Pakistan within 3-4 years after getting test status. She had drawn plenty of matches even when her team was considered weak.

Don't want to compare Bangladesh with Zimbabwe. Before the white players rebelled, cricket was largely the sport for white minority there. She never had the frenzy about cricket like we have in Bangladesh for last ten years.

I have to admit our development in the longer version of cricket in last seven years is really poor. Only recently our cricket administrators have realized that we need to concentrate more in this area. I am yet to hear/see a solid long term development plan from BCB regarding this issue.

[MohammedC]

I agree with Eshen and if I am not mistaken SL already was playing first class games going way back. So I see no comparison between us and SL.

Early years for SL
Ceylon, as the country was known before 1972, played its first first-class match under that name against MCC at Nomads Ground, Victoria Park, Colombo in 1926-27, losing by an innings. ^[2] The team's first win came against Patiala at Dhruve Pandove Stadium in 1932-33. ^[3] The Ceylonese side competed in the M. J. Gopalan Trophy games from the 1950s, through the change of name to Sri Lanka, well into the 1970s.

Our main problem is our organiser's.

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by Eshen
... I have to admit our development in the longer version of cricket in last seven years is really poor. Only recently our cricket administrators have realized that we need to concentrate more in this area. I am yet to hear/see a solid long term development plan from BCB regarding this issue.

Spot on, though I don't think the problem is the lack of "plan" - they have a good one from what I hear - but lack of implementation/application. What do you expect with the likes of Lobi and Koko running things when they did. Koko's contributions to youth development are noted but we must also ask the question "at what cost?"

This was the first year BCB attempted to attach real importance to the NCL, our ONLY FC cricket, and has arguably started the process and school-cricket outside Dhaka needs to be further strengthened as most of our talent are coming from outside the city nowadays. The NCL as we know too well, needs to be further strengthened with more attractive performance-based financial incentives for its players over the next few years. MLB-style marketing-merchandizing complete with more extensive and specialized TV coverage, and most importantly, sporting pitches will help too. Broken record.

[Sohel]

Good article.

Excerpts ...

But best enjoy the gulf in performance while it lasts, seemed to be the New Zealand coach's message on the newest member of the test fraternity.

"They have the numbers for it, and they have a lot of financial resources to put into it," Bracewell said.

"They've got passion and that's what they do in Bangladesh [play cricket]. We've got more options to take our talent. They have every chance." ...

... "I can only comment on what I've seen over the last three years and there's a vast difference from the side we played in Bangladesh [in 2004] till now," Bracewell said.

"They tend to rely on a vital few. Having said that, so do we. They have knocked some good teams over."

Some of our issues in New Zealand and Coach Siddons' comments ...

Their biggest problem in the first test is likely to be how to handle the seam and, especially, bounce from New Zealand's fast-medium bowlers. They are brought up on pitches which rarely bounce above stump height.

Some of their attempts at the pull or hook shot during the ODI series were scarily bad, moments you'd avert your eyes for fear of seeing real physical damage inflicted.

Only captain Mohammad Ashraful plays the pull with reasonable assurance. So no guesses where much of the focus for New Zealand's attack will be this week.

They made liberal use of the bouncer and short-pitched ball during the second and third ODIs, after Ashraful had given them a flaying at Eden Park on Boxing Day ...

... "We can survive off the short ball but can't score off it," Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons said.

And this is not the time to be trying to resolve significant technical issues like that, he added.

"It's hard to change things in the middle of a series. They are trying to learn the game at international level.

We need time away. We have two weeks here, then back to a camp for a month until our next series, against South Africa.

"That's the time we'll get stuck into the short stuff, work on the pull shot and add new skills to their game," Siddons said.

[al Furqaan]

Eshen,

you have to consider that SL actually earned their Test status when they got it. thats why they were better than we are.

we didn't even have a first class comptetition before getting test status. lets not forget that often our players made their FC debut in a Test match.

all things equal, bangladesh has developed much quicker than other nations. again with all equal variables. had we played 3 day tests like india we would have also drawn a good number forget that they often played 120 overs a day. players were far less athletic and coupled with the extra overs, they would would bowling and fielding utter crap.

i am not saying that we are as good as other teams were, but the question is why are we poorer. lack of organizational skill in our management, poor umpiring, and different era are all things that have made us look far inferior.