Are we at the beginning of The End?

[fwullah]

Every team passes its bad times, and its good times - one after another. It is a cycle of a never-ending story. When bad times come, we know that good times are in the future, and when we are passing a good time, we fear that the bad times of the past will come to haunt us again.

The question is, are we at the beginning of THE END? Will we not get any more moments of glory - of winning in the near future - to be specific, in this year - the year of 2006?

We have a Sri Lanka tour and an Australia tour coming up this year - both to be played at home. While we have never been competitive enough to win any match over Sri Lanka - as per our expectations, we have already beaten Australia - which was, to be honest, beyond our expectations when we earned the One Day status at first back in 1997.

And then there is the ICC Champions trophy - a tournament where we have never been able to perform, really.

The year has only one away tour scheduled for us - New Zealand tour at the end of the year. New Zealand is a country where we have never been successful even against the local first class teams, the failure rate also extends to even our U-19 teams' tour over there.

The year 2006 is also the year of preparations for every team who'd be participating in the Cricket World Cup in West Indies during the year 2007. So, no win for Bangladesh in this year would devastate the Bangladesh team in terms of confidence, and one single win against one of the test teams will boost our confidence so much as to from where we could say that our aim at the world cup would be to go to the second round - a feat that we have not been able to do until now.

In addition, we will remain the only test team to not to promote ourselves to the second round of the world cup, for that matter, any world cup, since cricket is the only game where we can get to play any world cup event.

One thing is worth mentioning here - our age-group team thus far, has failed to move to the second round of U-19 World Cup even though we have a pretty talented bunch up our sleeves throughout the last decade. So, our current team has players who have not-so-fond memories of the burden shouldered from the fans upto the players of the expecations of going to the second round, and failing to do so on numerous occassions until today.

To move back to the main point - we have seen our team at its best during 2005 - beating Australia. Are we in the position to compare the current time with the times of the past? Say for example, our time during the year 2000 was a really good one - we were playing well, really well at that time, but then some players retired, some players changed, as a result - we had to pass some terrible times - the result of which we had seen during the world cup 2003. Again, are we passing a similar stage right now? Sure - everything is improving - we have a couple of good selectors in our disposal, we have some young, but experienced players in our team.

The question is - will we make the same mistakes as we did before? Or, are we, are our board officials desparate enough to not to let change anything at the moment - even after we pass the worst year of our lives?

[sadi]

I think this year will pretty tough. Srilanka always played tough on us. Australia is the world champ. And I am not really looking forward to the tour of New Zealand. This is a place where every touring side struggles except maybe Australia. India, Srilanka or even South Africa lost their big mig margin last time they visited New Zealand.

Hopefully though, if Kenya comes then we should win that series. Again, we can set up couple of series with the new odi countries in the middle and that can help as a confident booster ahead of the world cup 2007.

[Sauron]

Tsk tsk ...

The primary quality of a Bangladesh Fan is his/her never-ending optimism. You'r slipping ...

Keep your hopes up. And keep the puke bag handy!

[sadi]

Edited on, January 12, 2006, 5:21 PM GMT, by sadi.

[rudro]

whats going on, sadi? I see you post the same topic twice...same happened in another thread as well.

[sadi]

I am not sure why its happening :embaressed:

[Rubu]

As long as the improvement curve goes up, I'm happy. But don't expect anything fency in this year. And this is definitely not the beginning of the end or end of the beginning, whatever. all other test teams except zimbos are far better than us. and we can only work on reducing the difference in this year. overcoming them is not possible so quickly

[Ahmed_B]

To be frank and honest, BD team has no specific 'learning curve'. Their performance doesn't rise or fall steadily.... it just jumps from one high point to a very low point. And the reverse is even true sometimes. In the 2005 England tour, BD did everything just shamefully horrible in the 2 Test matches until the 2nd innings of 2nd Test. It was like... the whole world waiting to suffocate BD’s test status with all their hatred and BD only provided more fuel to the controversy by their severely shocking performance. Fans started feeling like digging their own graves and burying themselves to hide from the shame. But I guess during the middle of the tour BD players started feeling all the heat and embarrassment and started feeling insecure regarding their credibility in the Test Cricket Arena. They bounced back with a bunch of good shows in the ODI’s, specially against the Aussies.

Hence I have a very strong feeling about the BD team’s mindset...
I think they only perform better/best when they are under lots of pressure! They only wake up when their credibility as players or a team is highly under question. When people start criticizing them strongly... that’s when they start coming out of their fake ‘self-satisfaction’ and this is the only tonic that brings out the best of their ability. This is surely not a very healthy way of thinking and for this reason I fear the worst too. Their performance might keep going downwards until it meets the yield point with bitterness enough for another wake-up call..

[sunniath]

this is surely a tough schedule.but if we get demoralized by seeing the names of the opponents,then the only time we can be hopeful for wins is when zim and wi are our opponents.we hope for an upset every time bd plays against a big team, and that is what keeps us supporting our team so strongly even after big losses.so cheer up and hope for the best.may be we will be able to pull one or two upsets this year as well.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally posted by Ahmed_B
Hence I have a very strong feeling about the BD team’s mindset...
I think they only perform better/best when they are under lots of pressure! They only wake up when their credibility as players or a team is highly under question. When people start criticizing them strongly... that’s when they start coming out of their fake ‘self-satisfaction’ and this is the only tonic that brings out the best of their ability.

I blame you for not criticizing Bd team enough in beginning of the SL tour last year. If only you had done "loudly" then they would have done much better in the second half of the tour.

Back to the topic: Agreeing with Rubu whole-heartedly. As long as we are improving I am happy.

If Zimbo's don't tour WI (which I am almost certain that will happen), can Bd board schedule a ODI tour or a tri nation series there (may-June 06)? That would be a very good preparation for the WC also. Cricman's Idea. Our Board should look into this early and fast.

[sadi]

Its really hard for us supporters as our performance is so up and down. One match we perform like we are almost there but next match or even the next innings is a total disaster. Our players don't seem to know how to come out of this inconsistency.

[Fazal]

I think it will be as usual or gradual decline upto 2007. After that, from 2008 it will be the begining of new era.

[rudro]

Originally posted by Fazal
I think it will be as usual or gradual decline upto 2007. After that, from 2008 it will be the begining of new era.

Prediction or hunch?

[shovon13]

hahahaha....having a poke at the title. nice one!! this thread could've been titled as "beginning of a rough year?" or "tough times ahead"...but no, it is the "beginning of the end". hide everyone! the apocalypse is coming.


Edited on, January 12, 2006, 10:14 PM GMT, by shovon13.
Reason: lol..was having too much fun

[al Furqaan]

tough year...we will do good to get one win out of 9 matches against SL, AUS, and NZ

tho SL is in a bit of a slump. just 2 wins from their last 12 ODIs.

[Spitfire_x86]

Originally posted by Ahmed_B
I think they only perform better/best when they are under lots of pressure! They only wake up when their credibility as players or a team is highly under question. When people start criticizing them strongly... that’s when they start coming out of their fake ‘self-satisfaction’ and this is the only tonic that brings out the best of their ability. This is surely not a very healthy way of thinking and for this reason I fear the worst too. Their performance might keep going downwards until it meets the yield point with bitterness enough for another wake-up call..

(I'm keeping ODI series victory against Zimbabwe out of equation)

Our team wins by pure luck. The reason for so many failures is not just complacency and lack of application.

Our team never had necessary skills for winning ODIs, and still they are not showing any sign of developing the required skills.

[SMHasan]

Originally posted by Spitfire_x86

(I'm keeping ODI series victory against Zimbabwe out of equation)

Our team wins by pure luck. The reason for so many failures is not just complacency and lack of application.

you sure about your comments?



Our team never had necessary skills for winning ODIs, and still they are not showing any sign of developing the required skills.

[SMHasan]

Spitfire_x86, so you wana say that bd beat the aussies only for their luck? there were no skill and applications?

[al Furqaan]

our win against, kenya and pakistan were pure luck, no question about it. but a win is still a win lucky or unlucky.

but the aussie win was a real one, they were on a slump we started strong and finished with a bang. a good start isn't luck. masri's opening spell of 5-2-6-1 was not luck (a once in a year performance maybe) but not luck.

ash's 94 against england was pretty lucky (despite the immense skill involved) but his match-winning hundred had nothing to do with luck.

the wins agianst India, Australia, and old Zim was not luck. it was based on tight fielding and superd bowling.

Bangladesh is slowly and surely, learning to play the ODI game. They had made zero progress from inception till 2004, but since that time they have come a long way, and have an even longer way yet to go.

in tests sadly, they have regressed since mid-2004. and are now marginally better than the pre-2003 days.

i also omitted the ZIM series wins.

Edited on, January 14, 2006, 5:55 PM GMT, by al Furqaan.

[Spitfire_x86]

Originally posted by sherlockhomes
Spitfire_x86, so you wana say that bd beat the aussies only for their luck? there were no skill and applications?

Yes, there was. But luck was a very big factor, if not main factor. Until 30 overs of our innings, you could never tell that we were actually chasing the target. Bashar himself admitted that they weren't actually batting for winning before 30 overs. After 30 overs, they took some chance and from then almost everything went in our way. In a not-so-lucky day, Bashar and Ashraful could've got themselves out several times if they played like that. Ashraful gave a quite easy chance at deep fine leg which was dropped by Gillespie, and he almost got himself bowled even before the 40+ overs started.

At this moment, our team can win only if all of the follwing conditions are true.
- Opposition must not play well
- We must do our best or close to best in every department
- Plus some help of luck

These conditions doesn't strictly apply to the other teams which know how to win.

[Spitfire_x86]

Originally posted by al Furqaan
Bangladesh is slowly and surely, learning to play the ODI game. They had made zero progress from inception till 2004, but since that time they have come a long way, and have an even longer way yet to go.

Natwest series also made me somewhat optimistic about our progress in ODI. But the ODI series against Srilanka was enough to kill the hopes.

[shovon13]

bullsh|t!
thank you.

[CricTiger]

Our forthcomming 2 home series against SL and Aus will tell us which way we are heading this time.Although our records in home ground are not that impressive.

The tittle fits more for U-19 team than our National Team.I am pretty much sure that they will qualify in the supper league for the first time (thus ending the curse of not been able to play in the supper league)and will go all the way to the final.(Begining of a new era.)

[al Furqaan]

Originally posted by Spitfire_x86

Natwest series also made me somewhat optimistic about our progress in ODI. But the ODI series against Srilanka was enough to kill the hopes.

well, thats why i said 'learning' rather than learned. i also remarked that we had a long way yet to go.

i hardly think the team can possibly play better each and every game.

i mean even australia cannot claim that are a better team after each game. downward falls do happen thats a fact of sports. after they won 3 WCs, they lost to us.

nothing against your feelings or opinions, but if you feel this way spitfire bhai, is it not a bit futile to continue following bangladesh cricket? is it not just a big waste of time? i mean think of all the work which could be accomplished in the time it takes to complete a test or ODI match?

if you say there is hope in the future, why not agree that there is hope in the present to be realized in the future?

however, i suspect, that the SL matches are just making you feel especially depressed. and understandably so.

Edited on, January 14, 2006, 10:11 PM GMT, by al Furqaan.

[Hatebreed]

very well said al Furqaan bhai