Open Letter From a Zimbabwean to BanglaCricket Members

[zimfan]

I am sorry to have to post this on a forum which I have enjoyed many debates over the years but I feel enough is enough.

Over the last two weeks I have read hundreds of offensive, incorrect and even a few racist comments regarding the country of my birth.

There seems to be an accusation that Zimbabwe are doing everything they can to make Bangladesh’s stay in Zimbabwe unpleasant and are not acting as good hosts.

These are the fact

1) The BCB and Rahim have openly declared that they did not request a warm up match as they felt they had enough preparation in Sri Lanka.
2) Rubel’s no ball was correct, no part of his foot was behind the line, therefore no conspiracy against Bangladesh from the umpires.
3) In regards to the schedule Zimbabwe are well within their rights to dictate the schedule, the reason for swapping it around was for the simple fact that Zimbabwe had just come off a test series against West Indies and wanted to continue in the longer format, this is the hosts right and has been used by many host county’s over the years.
4) Zimbabwe are once again in their right to produce any pitch they want, when we tour Bangladesh we are hit with spinning tracks, this is not a surprise and no one complains about it, instead they understand that a key part of international cricket is adapting to overseas conditions.

Finally I would like to apologise for the standard of commentary yes it comes across as biased but please remember when we have no Bangladesh commentator in the box (for reasons I do not know) then the commentators will always talk about the team they know most about.

I hope the rest of the series is conducted in the right spirit on the forum and we can stick to cricketing issues rather than a range of excuses to hide a poor performance from Bangladesh.

In my opinion your batsman let the team down on a wicket which was not impossible to bat on, however I would back Bangladesh to get back into the series as I think we are vulnerable at the top of the order and if you can get rid of Taylor then you are through half our side.

Regards

Zimfan

[Roey Haque]

1) Source please.
2)Doesn't the foot have to be on the line, and not behind the line? And anyway, there were other decisions that went against us such as the LBWs.

You are right about 3 and 4, but I don't think many people were complaining about that to begin with.

Don't apologize for the commentary, I loved it personally. Biased but fresh and un-scripted like no other.

On a final note, I really came in here looking to see you lamenting the fact how most people haven't given credit to the Zim players( including me), and rather went on a spree of self bashing( be in merited or unmerited). I thought that would offend you the most.

[tiger1000]

Originally Posted by zimfan
I am sorry to have to post this on a forum which I have enjoyed many debates over the years but I feel enough is enough.

Over the last two weeks I have read hundreds of offensive, incorrect and even a few racist comments regarding the country of my birth.

There seems to be an accusation that Zimbabwe are doing everything they can to make Bangladesh’s stay in Zimbabwe unpleasant and are not acting as good hosts.

These are the fact

1) The BCB and Rahim have openly declared that they did not request a warm up match as they felt they had enough preparation in Sri Lanka.
2) Rubel’s no ball was correct, no part of his foot was behind the line, therefore no conspiracy against Bangladesh from the umpires.
3) In regards to the schedule Zimbabwe are well within their rights to dictate the schedule, the reason for swapping it around was for the simple fact that Zimbabwe had just come off a test series against West Indies and wanted to continue in the longer format, this is the hosts right and has been used by many host county’s over the years.
4) Zimbabwe are once again in their right to produce any pitch they want, when we tour Bangladesh we are hit with spinning tracks, this is not a surprise and no one complains about it, instead they understand that a key part of international cricket is adapting to overseas conditions.

Finally I would like to apologise for the standard of commentary yes it comes across as biased but please remember when we have no Bangladesh commentator in the box (for reasons I do not know) then the commentators will always talk about the team they know most about.

I hope the rest of the series is conducted in the right spirit on the forum and we can stick to cricketing issues rather than a range of excuses to hide a poor performance from Bangladesh.

In my opinion your batsman let the team down on a wicket which was not impossible to bat on, however I would back Bangladesh to get back into the series as I think we are vulnerable at the top of the order and if you can get rid of Taylor then you are through half our side.

Regards

Zimfan

What you said is true on most accounts, but lets not pretend when BD fans complain about umpiring decisions they are going on about rubels wicket (line belongs to the umpire) - some do. Majority complain about all the other decisions. End of the day that did effect the match, but I doubt the outcome, Taylor and co out performed Bangladesh

[mufi_02]

Yeah I think we made too many excuses but its just due to frustration. Thing is, Zimbabwe really played much superior cricket than us. Rubel's no ball, hotel, pitch, other issues are just external factors. In international level, you have to adapt and play.

The pitch was no land mine there. Cremer and Meth blocked, survived, and built partnerships. Our front line batsmen could not do what Zim tail enders did.

There is not shame in accepting that we were thoroughly outplayed by a better team.

[akabir77]

Not sure who is complaining about the pitch but you intentionally or unintentionally bypassed the major issue of the hotel. How a test team can be facing a problem like water i don't know. After playing all day they had to count water bottle to have a drink? our management are not that shavy or they could have easily detect how this was effecting our players who gets home sick and what not so easily..

Other than that and umpiring I don't think most people have any issue. BTW which one was racist? (i mean which topic)??

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by zimfan

Over the last two weeks I have read hundreds of offensive, incorrect and even a few racist comments regarding the country of my birth.

Do note this forum does not stand for offensive or racist remarks. If you feel someone has violated the forum rules, even if it is me, please do report that person.

As myself.

[One World]

... and Jahurul's thigh pad is made of willow and is actually a protruded part of his bat. Thanks.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by zimfan
Over the last two weeks I have read hundreds of offensive, incorrect and even a few racist comments regarding the country of my birth.

Highly doubt any racist comments were posted by BC members. You will find that this forum is extremely tightly censored. Our rules are far more strict than Pakistani, Indian, and other forums AND its enforced to the best of the moderators' abilities. All members sign up accepting the rules under which the forum operates. No matter what your persuasion, there are other forums to air your thoughts, but BC isn't it. People have been banned for religious preaching, so impossible to fathom that racism would be tolerated.

1) The BCB and Rahim have openly declared that they did not request a warm up match as they felt they had enough preparation in Sri Lanka.

Partially true. Rahim mentioned they opted out of the warm ups and also cited at the Dhaka airport that ZIM facilities are "not up to the standard". This was even before departure from Dhaka.

2) Rubel’s no ball was correct, no part of his foot was behind the line, therefore no conspiracy against Bangladesh from the umpires.

I think the criticism was more that none of the ZIM wickets were similarly checked. Granted very few of Robiuls were checked also, so this is pretty fair.

3) In regards to the schedule Zimbabwe are well within their rights to dictate the schedule, the reason for swapping it around was for the simple fact that Zimbabwe had just come off a test series against West Indies and wanted to continue in the longer format, this is the hosts right and has been used by many host county’s over the years.

True.

4) Zimbabwe are once again in their right to produce any pitch they want, when we tour Bangladesh we are hit with spinning tracks, this is not a surprise and no one complains about it, instead they understand that a key part of international cricket is adapting to overseas conditions.

Also true.

Finally I would like to apologise for the standard of commentary yes it comes across as biased but please remember when we have no Bangladesh commentator in the box (for reasons I do not know) then the commentators will always talk about the team they know most about.

I hope the rest of the series is conducted in the right spirit on the forum and we can stick to cricketing issues rather than a range of excuses to hide a poor performance from Bangladesh.

You won't find anyone who thinks Bangladesh played well. Everyone agrees we played worse than doo doo. I think some of the issues have affected the team, but mostly it was their complacency which quickly developed into shock from which they didn't recover.

ZIM most certainly out-batted us, out-bowled us, and out-fielded us as well. And a little help from guys wearing fly emirates shirts also helped to turn a 200 run loss into one by 335.

[mij]

I hope guys wearing fly emirates soon replace by technology.

[AsifTheManRahman]

We can be losers, or we can be sore losers. The former is a given, thanks to the pairlessness of our players. The second, we can control by not complaining about every damn little thing.

[Zeeshan]

shetai asif bhai, khoi ar mora by the way

[cricket_pagol]

Agree with al Furqaan analysis.

I guess my only complain is that on an average, more umpiring decisions are going against us. I hope the same will not be true in the second test match.

BTW, ZIM was definitely the better team in all departments during the first test match. I hope we can fight back in the second test match.

[Crisis]

What about the lack of clean water ?
Petrol smelling water with solids in it is just appalling!
And, that too in a Holiday Inn hotel!

[cricbook]

No body complaining accept bs umpaire decision.... We know we will be back in a second test... But our concern is among our self... That what happend to the team where they played extreamly good in srilanka..... So why failing in zim???? Also comentators r far way beyond the line of standard quality...so i will say, pls keep those consern to ur self.... We know what should we do.... Its just us to blame for this kind of situation fallen again.... but i belive, we will fight back with a fire house present by tk, momi, sakib, robiul etc.....

[cricbook]

Beware tigers r coming.......

[BengaliPagol]

ZImfan i think went a bit overboard about the offensive remarks part. We don't say bad stuff about the country. We did poke a bit of fun at Jeremy but i think that's about it. Yes people will whine and complain about this decision or that decision but everyone knows that at the end of the day the Bangladeshi players did themselves harm. They were the ones who couldn't get the runs on the board.

[Rubu]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
1) Source please.
2)Doesn't the foot have to be on the line, and not behind the line? And anyway, there were other decisions that went against us such as the LBWs.

You are right about 3 and 4, but I don't think many people were complaining about that to begin with.

Don't apologize for the commentary, I loved it personally. Biased but fresh and un-scripted like no other.

On a final note, I really came in here looking to see you lamenting the fact how most people haven't given credit to the Zim players( including me), and rather went on a spree of self bashing( be in merited or unmerited). I thought that would offend you the most.

I can talk in general terms that that is not the case. "The line belongs to the umpire", meaning a portion of the feet (shoe) has to be behind the line, even the tiniest bit will do, but on the line or covering the line is not good enough.

[Night_wolf]

Why aren't anything about the Hotel, the petrol water in your opening post?

and about your other points

1. everybody know that, we were complaining that BCB are morons, but do you know the reason why BCB didn't want the practice match?, it was not because of enough practice in Srilanka.

2.BD has suffered by wrong umpairing as much as ZIM, if anybody can relate to this a ZIM fan can, so any rough decision we complain

3.i believe host has the right so no wrong done there, but in my humble opinion that was unethical

4.100% agree with that on you, if we came he we would have made a turner, to be a good team one will have to perform in every conditions, thats why Australia was so good

[al-Sagar]

Originally Posted by zimfan
I am sorry to have to post this on a forum which I have enjoyed many debates over the years but I feel enough is enough.

Over the last two weeks I have read hundreds of offensive, incorrect and even a few racist comments regarding the country of my birth.

There seems to be an accusation that Zimbabwe are doing everything they can to make Bangladesh’s stay in Zimbabwe unpleasant and are not acting as good hosts.

These are the fact

1) The BCB and Rahim have openly declared that they did not request a warm up match as they felt they had enough preparation in Sri Lanka.
2) Rubel’s no ball was correct, no part of his foot was behind the line, therefore no conspiracy against Bangladesh from the umpires.
3) In regards to the schedule Zimbabwe are well within their rights to dictate the schedule, the reason for swapping it around was for the simple fact that Zimbabwe had just come off a test series against West Indies and wanted to continue in the longer format, this is the hosts right and has been used by many host county’s over the years.
4) Zimbabwe are once again in their right to produce any pitch they want, when we tour Bangladesh we are hit with spinning tracks, this is not a surprise and no one complains about it, instead they understand that a key part of international cricket is adapting to overseas conditions.

Finally I would like to apologise for the standard of commentary yes it comes across as biased but please remember when we have no Bangladesh commentator in the box (for reasons I do not know) then the commentators will always talk about the team they know most about.

I hope the rest of the series is conducted in the right spirit on the forum and we can stick to cricketing issues rather than a range of excuses to hide a poor performance from Bangladesh.

In my opinion your batsman let the team down on a wicket which was not impossible to bat on, however I would back Bangladesh to get back into the series as I think we are vulnerable at the top of the order and if you can get rid of Taylor then you are through half our side.

Regards

Zimfan

first of all i hope the Modz will oversee the offensive and racist comments, and on behalf of the forum i apologies for such comments.

i hope u understand the result has been hugely disappointing and its natural that a huge outburst of comments will come from the fans. if someday Zimbabwe go through such a humiliation a similar outburst will be seen from zim fans also.

about the game, complain regarding conditions and pitches are not acceptable. that's the charm and challenge of away games that u have to play at different conditions. bangladesh failed to cope up with it, its our fault.

about the umpiring, it actually has been a long problem for Bangladesh. for a long time we have been suffering from bad umpiring against us. we get some bad umpiring decision for which we lose wickets when we shouldn't have, and we are deprived of wickets that we should have got. i think there is nothing to accuse Zimbabwe for this, this thing should be taken care of by ICC.

finally lets hope the rest of the series goes well and the team that plays well wins

[ReZ_1]

Hmm, read your open letter... (amar first e mone hoisilo gonojagoron moncho theke prodhanmontrir kase khola chithir akta ongsobishes from zim )Already some of us have answered to your concerns. Others read this thing first

বাংলাদেশের মতো জিম্বাবুয়ের খেলোয়াড়েরাও বাংলাদেশের বিপক্ষে খেলাটাকে অস্তিত্বের সংগ্রাম হিসেবে দেখেন। শত প্রতিকূলতায়ও দলটা তাই এককাট্টা। ভয়াবহ আর্থিক সংকটের মধ্য দিয়ে যাওয়া জিম্বাবুয়ে ক্রিকেট সিরিজ চলাকালেও পুরো দলকে একসঙ্গে রাখতে পারছে না। হারারেতে যাঁদের বাড়িঘর আছে, বোর্ডের হোটেল খরচ বাঁচাতে তাঁরা সেখানেই থাকছেন। হোটেলে আছেন শুধু অন্য শহরের ক্রিকেটাররা। বুলাওয়েতে গিয়েও নাকি স্থানীয়রা খেলবেন নিজ বাড়িতে থেকে।
অথচ হারারের এভনডেল-বরোডেলের মতো এলাকায় গেলে মনে হবে ইংল্যান্ডের কোনো ছোট শহরেই বুঝি ঢুকে পড়েছেন! পরিপাটি রাস্তাঘাট আর ছিমছাম সাজানো শহর অনেকটাই ঢেকে রেখেছে দারিদ্র্যের গোপন দুঃখ। বাস্তবতা হলো, জীবনের সংগ্রাম এখনো এখানে নিরন্তর। তা যতই জিম ডলারের জায়গা নিয়ে নিক মার্কিন ডলার। কিংবা ক্রিকেট মাঠে বাংলাদেশকে দরিদ্র প্রমাণ করে দিক টেলরের দল।

http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/da...23/news/347021

so they are themselves in a very tough situation, so can't complain about our own issues like hotel and other stuffs(not getting enough rice for breakfast ).
i don't think there has been any offensive talk against zim, don't know about your acceptance radar though, but i guess you have to bear some being in a bangla forum, the anguish after being terribly doomed in the field

[Zeeshan]

yes rezwan the einstein, thanks for the link too for a crash course in bangla for our guest zimfan

[Tendulkar_Mcgrath]

Honestly speaking both Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been trying enter Elite Test group , So why the heck we are getting so serious??. Bangladesh did bad,Zimbabwe did their best. Regarding Umpiring and Commentary and hotel, come on..excuses are not the factor we all know it.. Bangladesh is not super test team. Neither Zimbabwe is.Bangladesh fought well against Big test team, So we expected a lot. But please be calm. Neither Bangladesh nor Zimbabwe has been reached that level. It was just good 5 days for Zimbabwe.

[jeesh]

@zimfan. Dont take offence. We the Bangladeshi fans are an extremely passionate bunch and will make a mountain out of a molehill for every issue that prevents us from winning. Trust me we ll be singing different songs when we beat you in the next few matches ;-)

Btw i hate the commentating. Not because they cant pronounce our players name. Not because they talk about their own players all the time. But the way which they talk about them. Jarvis is a good bowler, had a good game. Cant call him world class based on this performance alone!

[betaar]

Zimfan,
first of thanks for the letter which seems to have stemmed from my thread where I accused Zim board playing dirty. The title may have been a little exaggerated but none the less some of the events were not a stretch. Whether they had any bearing on the outcome of the first test was not the topic of discussion in my thread; rather it was the unfair disadvantage those events put Bangladesh in, was. I will try to explain my self below in detail.

[quote]1) The BCB and Rahim have openly declared that they did not request a warm up match as they felt they had enough preparation in Sri Lanka.[/quote]

I was not aware of this so I will sincerely apologize for my ignorance. If this is true then that's a moronic decision from our part. Regardless of Zim sub-standard facility BD should have still opted for some practice matches knowing their frailty on bouncy pitches. It’s not like Bangladesh is a first world country, so this sort of stupid excuse about facility is not acceptable.
Even team like Australia suffered when they decided not to have practice games few years back and almost lost the first test in Fatullah. But since BD is no OZ they definitely needed whatever exposure they could get prior to this series.

2) Rubel’s no ball was correct, no part of his foot was behind the line, therefore no conspiracy against Bangladesh from the umpires.

Have not seen that incident but heard about it. If Rubel’s foot was not behind the line then it cannot be a legitimate ball. But I believe BCB criticized the inconsistency, in terms of checking the footings of the BD bowlers after taking wickets but not the Zim bowlers, in umpiring rather than the wrong decisions. Bad umpiring that we got from the Umps is just incompetency, not a conspiracy.

3) In regards to the schedule Zimbabwe are well within their rights to dictate the schedule, the reason for swapping it around was for the simple fact that Zimbabwe had just come off a test series against West Indies and wanted to continue in the longer format, this is the hosts right and has been used by many host county’s over the years.

Sure it is though it seems like a late adjustment made strictly to help Zim. And when bundled with other adjustments such as ground selection, which I will speak below, it does seem pretty desperate from ZC's part.

4) Zimbabwe are once again in their right to produce any pitch they want, when we tour Bangladesh we are hit with spinning tracks, this is not a surprise and no one complains about it, instead they understand that a key part of international cricket is adapting to overseas conditions.

Totally agree with you in regards to home boards right in producing whatever pitch they chose. What I question is the decision of not playing Bulawayo because of the flatness of the pitch and Zim failure in winning matches there. Even Firdose Moonda questioned it in her article though she did bring up the financial aspect but it’s a move that puts Zim in an advantageous position, wouldn’t you agree? There would not have been any question if Zim produced a spinning track in Bulawayo but opted to play on a ground they feel most comfortable in. Again nothing wrong with that and well within Zim right but does not make it fair though, does it?

Finally I would like to apologise for the standard of commentary yes it comes across as biased but please remember when we have no Bangladesh commentator in the box (for reasons I do not know) then the commentators will always talk about the team they know most about.

Again that's not a conspiracy.....that’s incompetency derived from exaggerated patriotism of the commentators.

Anyways, hopefully there's nothing personal about these comments from my part and other BC member so we can still have you as a participating member from Zimbabwe.

Finally something I need to say about some of the BC members. Some of you speak of BD winning and teaching Zim a lesson and not complain or whine about all the issues Bangladesh is facing. You folks speaks as if BD is OZ and is capable of thrashing Zim in their own turf at will.

Speaking with either OZ or Americanized arrogance may sound macho and make you and your post very attractive but the truth is we are all poor fans of a team called Bangladesh that need all the fairness, if not advantage, it can get to win matches even against team Zimbabwe, especially when on tour.

[al Furqaan]

While it may be well within ZIM's right to host both matches at Harare...its almost unprecedented to have back to back Tests in the same venue. One of the reasons for having a "series" of Tests is to have a series of different venues. Such scheduling has probably never happened in the modern game.

The reason fans are irked is because playing ZIM is a high-risk, no reward proposition. We don't get any kudos for winning but the implications of winning or not winning by a big enough margin are steep. That being said, we need all the international matches we can get so we should never turn down a chance to play ZIM. Especially in ZIM.