Such negativity and fear of losing even against an Associate!

[Razi]

The men in orange continue to amaze us
Cricket Europe, 21 July 2010

The Dutch team continues to amaze us. I still don’t quite understand it, but a few hours ago the Netherlands played Test side Bangladesh off the park in an ODI in Glasgow.

A week ago I was still asking myself if we were back to square one after the poor performances in the World Cricket League Division 1. I wrote earlier about ‘the glorious uncertainty of cricket’. This was just such a case. Apart from a few die hards like Peter Drinnen, no-one thought about a 6-wicket victory over Bangladesh. But it happened, and there’s no argument about that fact. How wonderful it is to taste the sweet after the sour!

In my thinking this win against Bangladesh is late revenge for the defeat against the same side, then not yet a Test country, in Kuala Lumpur in 1997, though which we missed out on qualifying for the 1999 World Cup in England. Bas Zuiderent can remember it exactly. Rain intervened then as well, and then too the players and officials of Bangladesh were able to influence the match with unlawful measures.

Since that time nothing has changed in Asian cricket. Today Bangladesh were entirely uninterested in playing – perhaps they could already see the cloud on the horizon. Last week they had lost to Ireland, and now another such game against the Netherlands? No thanks! They tried in all kinds of ways to persuade the umpires that conditions weren’t good enough for the match to start.

The groundsman, his staff and the umpires remained completely uninfluenced, and did everything in their power to get the game under way. It worked, and a 30-over match started at a quarter to three.

Mark Jonkman began with an over of 12 runs including a wide and a no ball, and Bukhari conceded 11 in his first over. Bangladesh’s intentions were clear: they wanted to show their superiority and set a big total.

In the following overs the situation didn’t improve much, despite the loss of the wicket of Tamim Iqbal, the ‘danger man’. The bowling remained poor, and it seemed as if the Dutch were suffering from nerves. After 13 overs there were 102 runs on the board.

They were batting outstandingly, until Peter Borren took his second wicket on 132 and from the next delivery his third. At a stroke the self-confidence of Bangladesh disappeared and they hauled themselves to a final total of 199 for seven. Still a useful score from 30 overs: 6.6 an over!

But then the miracle began. Eric Szwarczynski started with eight runs from his first over. He had expressed in advance his concern about the opposition, who were after all a Test side and would be sure to have good bowling. The first ball was a gift, neither quick nor testing, and it was despatched; another of the same kind two balls later was also sent to the boundary.

‘I can do that too,’ thought Kervezee, and hit two fours in the next over. The tone was established, and any anxiety dispelled. Szwarczynski took the lead, and by doing so set the Dutch on the path to victory. The runs came at a high tempo, everything came off. In international sport they call that being ‘in the zone’. Szwarczynski: ‘I was never in any doubt – I knew exactly what I had to do, and it all worked.’
Until the umpire made a mistake. He called ‘over’ with one delivery remaining. He realised his error and allowed the last ball to be bowled. The concentration was gone, and so was Szwarczynski. Nevertheless, it was the most important and the finest innings of his career, 67 runs from 53 balls!

The Dutch were shocked – what now? Cooper, the Man of the Tournament in the World Cricket League, didn’t come off. The achievements of the past count for nothing . . . . . Peter Borren had a go, but he too had to concede defeat.

And then came the miracle of Glasgow. Good old Bas Zuiderent and the newcomer Wesley Barresi came together at the crease. The old stager and the ‘new kid’ seemed to be the answer to the problem. How often has Zuiderent played a decisive innings for his country? Innumerable times, and again now, now that it really mattered.

He had flown in the evening before, having had to work, arriving late and getting little sleep, but he stood his ground. His first scoring stroke was a flat six over square leg which the fieldsman heard but certainly didn’t see.

And Wesley Barresi, until now not wholly successful in the Dutch side, played the innings of his life. The Bangladeshis began to recognise that it might perhaps go wrong for them. Barresi and Zuiderent had an answer to everything they tried. The Dutch had been ahead of their D/L target all through the innings, and that gave a positive impulse. This pair were also ‘in the zone’, and the win came off the fifth ball of the penultimate over.

The tears flowed freely. Peter Drinnen could scarcely speak. ‘You have to do it when it matters’, he managed to get out, referring back to those poor performances last week; and then he embraced another of his players.

Bangladesh trickled away while the whole world congratulated the Netherlands. The president of the ICC mailed Richard Done to compliment him on the success of the Associates. Richard Cox could finally return from his seat in a distant corner of the field. He had gone to sit there when, after the poor start by the Dutch, things began to go a little better. Superstitious as he is, he stayed there until the victory was safely secured.

‘Jolly nice game, well played’ said Peter Borren to his opposite number from Bangladesh, and then headed for the beer. The driver who had to bring the Dutch party back to the hotel took his tenth cola and said once more that he understood nothing at all about cricket. Football was his game, and Celtic his team. No-one paid any attention and the night wore on. Netherlands-Bangladesh 5-0!!

[WarWolf]

Still these guys won't be ashamed. We are a nation full of shamelesses. The Austrian coach is the head of the bunch.

[Naimul_Hd]

Originally Posted by Razi
The men in orange continue to amaze us
Cricket Europe, 21 July 2010

In my thinking this win against Bangladesh is late revenge for the defeat against the same side, then not yet a Test country, in Kuala Lumpur in 1997, though which we missed out on qualifying for the 1999 World Cup in England. Bas Zuiderent can remember it exactly. Rain intervened then as well, and then too the players and officials of Bangladesh were able to influence the match with unlawful measures.

Since that time nothing has changed in Asian cricket. Today Bangladesh were entirely uninterested in playing – perhaps they could already see the cloud on the horizon. Last week they had lost to Ireland, and now another such game against the Netherlands? No thanks! They tried in all kinds of ways to persuade the umpires that conditions weren’t good enough for the match to start.

The groundsman, his staff and the umpires remained completely uninfluenced, and did everything in their power to get the game under way. It worked, and a 30-over match started at a quarter to three.

NOW that's OUTRAGEOUS !!!! is he out of his mind ??? BD beat Dutch in 1997 by influencing officials ???? man...after yesterday's shameful defeat, We dnt have any answers, do we ??

Old saying, "Jokhon hati gorte pore, tokhon piprao latthi mare " ! amra hati na...but amader obostha ta thik hatir motoi !

[Antora]

well, it is pretty obvious that thay didn't want to play. They've been playing cricket non-stop for the past few months and considering the fact that their not used to it, plus a lot of the games haven been outside of Bangladesh, I guess the team is both tired plus homesick. But this should not be an excuse to lose to accosiates.
If they're not whilling to sacrifice their love for Biriyani, win games and bring pride to Bangladesh. Then they shouldn't play cricket at all! They should realise it is a profession and must be taken seriously. If they are homesick and missing their families, why not bring their wives or mothers along? Apart from occassionaly seeing habibul bashar's Wife and Shahriar Nafees' wife at stadiums, I have never seen anyone else's wife going to support their husbands!

we complained about not playing cricket as much as the other big teams and used that as an excuse when we lost. Now that we are playing a lot of games and getting a lot of practice before the world cup, we are blaming the losses on too much cricket!

I don't even know why I support this team!

[Nadim]

Shameless Idiots.

[al-Sagar]

is it a joke ?????

[hmmm]

Originally Posted by Antora
well, it is pretty obvious that thay didn't want to play. They've been playing cricket non-stop for the past few months and considering the fact that their not used to it, plus a lot of the games haven been outside of Bangladesh, I guess the team is both tired plus homesick. But this should not be an excuse to lose to accosiates.
If they're not whilling to sacrifice their love for Biriyani, win games and bring pride to Bangladesh. Then they shouldn't play cricket at all! They should realise it is a profession and must be taken seriously. If they are homesick and missing their families, why not bring their wives or mothers along? Apart from occassionaly seeing habibul bashar's Wife and Shahriar Nafees' wife at stadiums, I have never seen anyone else's wife going to support their husbands!

we complained about not playing cricket as much as the other big teams and used that as an excuse when we lost. Now that we are playing a lot of games and getting a lot of practice before the world cup, we are blaming the losses on too much cricket!

I don't even know why I support this team!

They are professionals ! no excuse for this, they are no amateurs from the streets of Dhaka.

[Ananna]

Bas Zuiderent can remember it exactly. Rain intervened then as well, and then too the players and officials of Bangladesh were able to influence the match with unlawful measures.

What the hell is talking about? What kind of journalism is this?

[nahaz]

Ei Banglar idiot ra to kokhono er jobab dite parbe na.

Akram Khan was more a tiger than these idiots ever could be! He won the match single-handedly despite having the same ability as a 13 year old michael clarke.

After getting all the training in the world from the age of 10 to 20, these idiots still cannot replicate what he or Chacha did. If they didn't want to play, why not let the reserves into the game? I'm sure our Nafi would have put in more effort than this sad bunch. They dont know that representing your country is a previledge, never a chore.

What the heck is this journalist on about anyway? Too much free Dutch Gainja..cant heck the fact that his team still sucks and that we deservedly got the test status ahead of them.

[cricket_king]

Goddamn this. Just reading this is making me boil. Why don't our players have any rage in them? Jesus! This has to be on par with Gillespie scoring a double ton, and losing to Canada. I can't believe their attitudes. And look at this psycho journalist. He's nuts obviously, but he has the right to be after the clobbering they handed us. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. This idiots should be taught patriotism all over again.

[AsifTheManRahman]

On the contrary, I would commend the author for remembering such intricate details of events that occurred over a decade ago. Akram did push for a stoppage in play although conditions were fair enough for the game to continue and had it not been for his little acting skit and insistence as we were struggling at 15/4 chasing 180 odd, there was a good chance things would have gotten worse from there. Another wicket then and we would have lost the game right there.

Akram later confessed to the Bangladeshi media and some of the dailies in Dhaka were also pretty proud about it. As far as I can remember, I was a Bhorer Kagoj subscriber at the time and the word that they used was "bhonita" to describe Akram's reaction to the grave situation we found ourselves in shortly after the lunch break.

[Raynman]

Here are my issues with the 4 leg associate tour:

- Even before the series there was a question mark if could sweep the matches
- Excuses were already being made why we could/would lose 1 or more matches
- Even a win vs. ENG didn't raise the confidence of the team or the supporters (both the pro and anti Siddons crew)
- IRE, SCO, NED never for a second doubted their ability to beat us. They approached the media and the game with sheer confidence looking to prove how far they have come in cricket by beating a nation ranked significantly above them. Where was this fire for us when we played IND/SL/NZ/ENG/PAk this year?
- IRE is looking to win and catch up with ZIM and BD in the rankings and NED are in the ODI ranking board
- We on the other hand are hoping WI has enough misgivings so they too can fall below us just like ZIM did
- We are quick to call the associates and ZIM minnows and discount any records against them yet get upset when IND/AUS/ENG treat us the same way.
- Our wins (ENG & IRE) should be considered FLUKES since our game plan never had the WIN option to begin with.