The 2-Tier Poll: No.../Yes.../But...

Ahmed_B · #1 February 15, 2005, 09:53 AM

OK... lets have a survey among the BD fans out here.

Between all sorts of confusing talks.. I hav seen many ppl dead against the 2-tier system, while some saying that it might be helpfull. It's not totally wrong that intence schedule vs. the strongest nations only causing us big defeats one after the other. And it is also not right that we can move forward with our cricket in a satisfactory pace if we are discarded off the matches vs. the Strongest teams.

From all sorts of discussions, these are the 2-tier options which has surfaced... now choose your option everyone!

Which format of Test Cricket is good for BD in the coming times??

chinaman · #2 February 15, 2005, 10:10 AM

Losing to the big guys is no shame. The experience you get is priceless. You can see first hand how they go about playing so good. Remember the Aussie series? Our boys carried the boast from that series all way through the home series against England.

I still remember the picture where a bent Steve Waugh looking for ways to have a breakthrough when we were 150+ for 2. The way Habibul Bashar took the score close to 100 within the last hour or so was electrifying.

Even India got boast playing the Asussies just before the Pak tour. Same goes for Sri Lanka too as they overwhelm England after an Aussie tour.

Ahmed_B · #3 February 15, 2005, 10:49 AM

well said chinaman bhai.. yes I fully support that we should sufficiently play the Topmost teams, including the Aussies. Because I dont really believe that if we lose a match to a strong team, we get nothing from it! There r so many other sides and plus points we gain from that!!

Personally.. the talk about forcing BD & ZIM to play home series only gave me a big shock!

I was stunned by the selfishness of the critics of the stronger nations... who only seem to be solely motivated by TV-Money earning factors! Shame that ICC is being forced to bow in its favor too!!

chinaman · #4 February 15, 2005, 10:56 AM

Back to the Darwin:

Steve Waugh had nothing but praise for the Bangladesh team after his own team had defeated them for a second time in a two match series.

�I thought their batting was a lot better than a lot of efforts by the West Indies in recent years and Pakistan in Sharjah,� Waugh said.

Australia bowled Pakistan out for 59 and 53 in the second Test at Sharjah last October to win by an innings and 198 runs.

After Waugh had won the toss and sent Bangladesh in to bat, the tourists reached 155 for one. They then suffered a middle-order collapse before recovering to score 295.

They followed up in the second innings with 163 as opener Hannan Sarkar top scored in both innings for Bangladesh with 76 and 55.

Read more >>

And a picture >>

reyme · #5 February 15, 2005, 11:57 AM

I agree with Chinaman for the most part. But the fact remains...As BD might have been benefited by gaining priceless experience from the big losses against big teams, but that actually drove the crowds away from the stadium at least to a some extent resulting less media attention and less and less sponsor money. In the highly commercialized cricket world, it did not help the cause for BD.

Sure Pakistan got out with some REAL low scores against Aussies, but that series still might have generated 3/4 or maybe even 10 times the revenue than the AUS-BD series. At the end of the day, let it be PCB, BCB or ICC, they will all calculate how much revenue was generated. There was a time when cricket was an ametuer game, but everyone knows, it is not anymore.

Now all this, is definitely not to justify the tier system, I am comprehensively against it. But sooner BD can show touger fights the better it is for everybody. And if the recent past performance is an indication of better future, I see a bright prospect. A win in England could be a real breakthrough. Some tough filghts might not help much because a loss is a loss like in Multan, but a win in England, gosh now that will be something!

offcutter · #6 February 15, 2005, 12:23 PM

Absolutely no 2-tier. End of discussion.

babubangla · #7 February 15, 2005, 12:52 PM

Phil Simmons, the west indian coach of Zimbabwe, has opposed the 2-tier porposal. He has said that plans to restrict the amount of Test cricket played by Zimbabwe and Bangladesh would harm the game in the two countries.

Source: http://plus.cricinfo.com/link_to_dat...15FEB2005.html

Ahmed_B · #8 February 16, 2005, 05:48 AM

Yes, I also remember Dav Whatmore saying something similar in strongly protesting voice in an interview with BBC probably.. but I am having a feeling that the ICC is really being tricky about this whole issue... and they are looking for backdoors!

It's almost certain that they can't place this tiering stuff very firmly if they do it with open honesty.. since there are so many strong counter arguements against their issues. But they surely are playing some sort of tricky hide and seek behind our back.