What went wrong in the Lord's

[chinaman]

What went wrong in the Lord's

So we lost again and with a big margin, not to mention, within three days. Of course we are disappointed. Who doesn't like to see his team compete to a minimum?

Why our team failed to put up some fight, what really went wrong? We may never know the correct answer but with some thoughts along with media reports, audio / video / text coverage, it is not very hard to get some clue.

The forum once again shows parades of endless negative comments, from droping Ashraful to sacking Bashar to install Rahim as captain to striping status to selective non-sylhetism and what not.

Look, there must be a pretty good reason why they call it "English condition". There must be something in it's definition that makes those grounds and environment unique. Our players just had a real taste of it. It will take more exposures for our boys to get the hang of it. The ball behaves differently with different bowlers. The pitch is fast and bouncy unlike any other the boys have had experience of. The ball regularly comes at the throat of the batsmen who are already disadvantaged by their own height.

Our batsmen just had a practical exam about that mysterious condition. Expectedly, they didn't do well. Nothing really went drastically wrong.

A solid professional always has extra cache of reserve to handle unexpected situations. Our younger boys slowly but surely continue to build up such reserves while the more matured faces are too matured to risk remodeling. But nonetheless the boys continue to run short in the cache.

The batsmen could not read the ball with confidence while the bowlers struggle to find the right spot to make an impact. Apart from raw speed, the bowlers were left with nothing much to offer, let alone controling and fine tuning.

And the usual blues were there too. Poor shot selection, frequent misjudgement, coarse reflex, nervousness all were there to perfectly repeat the ever known vicious cycle.

But let's be honest, no one can significantly improve these factors overnight. Besides, I think the pre-tension played a huge role to negate any improvement there might be, pretty early on in an innings, more so in an unfamiliar condition.

Ofcourse there are personal limitations too. Let's take Bashar for example. He has been out too often playing similar shots. That seems suicidal. But does he has other options to go by? Probably not. If he has to abandon the pull shots, he might find it even harder for the runs to come by. And he is not a good candidate for drastic remodeling either. We also have some compulsive hitters as well as irregular cool heads. By hey, this is our lunch for the time being.

There is no point in claiming the heads, we simply do not have better choices. What we have in abundance is the potential. With the young talented bunch, if we can cut down the pre-tense and stick to the basics, we can only go forward with each exposure.

There was no surprise in the first match. Seven more to go.

[mwrkhan]

Another innings loss within three days. Our most common result, representing over 60% of our losses to date. So nothing new here. Certainly no surprise.

[Spitfire_x86]

to chinaman

[James90]

In the Lords?

[Mridul]

Its normal for Bangladesh...actually nothing went wrong......the fact is BD players are not world class yet(not good enough to compete in international cricket level)..

...though some players are talented......it does not mean they are world class or close to world class......there are (bhuri bhuri) talented players in club cricket of other coutries.....but very few make it to the international level after proving themselves........

....in the case of Bangladesh "Whoever is talented...let him play International Cricket" [end quote]......and this is the biggest problem.

[Lions_heart]

Hi Chinaman, you article was good and I'm agree with you 80%. You are right about conditions, British media and high expectation - all playing its part to our terrible downfall at Lords.

But what was painful to watch was that, our batsmen doesn't know the basics of cricket. For example, the way Nafis Iqbal got out in both innings was horrifying. not only Nafis, most of our batsmen doesn't know how to use feets (bach foot and front foot shots) to play shots. There were so little EYE-HAND-HEAD movement when playing shots. We still play like amateurs, playing away from the body, poking the balls etc etc.

we re playing test cricket for 5 years now and and we had great cricket coaches like Gordon and Dev, and if we still can't learn the basic technical aspects of batting and bowling, then we might not have a good future and things might not improve a lot and we will be defeated like that often.

[mahbubH]

>> There were so little EYE-HAND-HEAD movement when playing shots.

lol.

You mean something wrong with the EYE --> HEAD or/and HEAD --> HAND processes!!

[oracle]

thanks for the short an sharp outline. I am still waiting for the lowdown from Faruk. Have'nt read anything that could soothe my nerves.

[chinaman]

Trust me, they know the basics. It is the reserve that they have yet to expand on to accomodate themselves quickly and smoothly on new and / or unfamiliar conditions.

Besides, they have yet to conquer the pre-tension that makes them unstable at the beginning. Mis-judgement, rush shot etc are the products of this pre-tension which sets the tone for the familiar top-order-collapse.

Pressure inevitably mounts for the middle order as an added burden.

Both the pre-tension and pressure ease up on the lower middle orders and tailenders as they discover in no time that the match is far out of the hand and there's nothing much to lose anymore. At this time, they can play some fearless game.

These situations are pretty much comparable to the students about to face the exam.

I'm confident, if the boys can get rid of the butterflies in their stomach, they'll easily be able to make their presence felt in any situation.

Edited on, May 29, 2005, 3:34 PM GMT, by chinaman.

[Mridul]

Originally posted by chinaman
Trust me, they know the basics. It is the reserve that they have yet to expand on to accomodate themselves quickly and smoothly on new and / or unfamiliar conditions.

They may know the basics....but there are not good at them yet....and the condition was not unfamiliar....last year summer BD U-19 played 3 youth test matches against england U-19...so the condition is not unfamiliar at all for these players

1. Nafis Iqbal
2. Aftab Ahmed
3. Mushfiqur Rahim
4. Shahadat Hossain
5. Enamul jnr.
6. Shahriar Nafees
7. Talha Jubair

these players actually played youth test matches in England

rest of the players may not have played 1st class matches in England condition b4 but they have played ODIs in English condition

NB: [wow...7 players of the current squad actually from BD U-19 of last year......I see none from Eng U-19 playing International cricket]

[sadi]

good point...see the thing is....we dun have a stable team yet.... england has all these proven test cricketer and then can slowly take their under 19 cricketers into the test team...but since our reserve is so low....we basically have to go from under 19 to test cricket.... our domestic cricket standard is very low and we basically depend on our age level team rather than domestic cricket to produce the cricketers...

The condition of England ......... it's too hard for our batsmen to play in that kinda condition ......

[Rubu]

Question: I'm more than sure that if u put kenya now in front of this english team in lords tomorrow they will do better than us. (i know its a pure speculation but their record shows that). why?

[chinaman]

Originally posted by Mridul
last year summer BD U-19 played 3 youth test matches against england U-19...so the condition is not unfamiliar at all for these players

Someone from England would be in a better position to reflect on the conditional variations on May vs August.

While we are at it let's consider the grounds too. U-19 played in Headingley, Taunton, Sophia Gardens and County Ground, Hove.

[chinaman]

Originally posted by AgentSmith
Question: I'm more than sure that if u put kenya now in front of this english team in lords tomorrow they will do better than us. (i know its a pure speculation but their record shows that). why?

Agent, please take a 2 days off from all cricket related activities. We miss our old mis-spelling guru pretty much.

[Ejaj]

Well said Chinaman. Totally agree with you.. Hope the boys , get some confidance back. They dont need to become someone extraordinary. They just need to play upto their ability and cool head.

[Mridul]

Originally posted by AgentSmith
Question: I'm more than sure that if u put kenya now in front of this english team in lords tomorrow they will do better than us. (i know its a pure speculation but their record shows that). why?

I agree...and the reason is...kenyan players are more talented than BD players....and they learn from their mistakes.

[bdboy]

I have no doubt about our boys. Look at Monir(he not our sp. batsman), the way he played with Masud that's not bad. Atleast he tried to keep his head cool and give support masud as much as he can. Most of the time their body movement , footwork was fine. Coz they had nothing in their head but stay on the pitch and result of the match was decided long before.

So i think if our boys can keep their head cool and do what they can within their limitation, we wouldn't be embrasssed again at Riverside.

Support our boys and they need your help to perform their best!
Don't act like 18 Ashes looser (and another on the way) bigmouth English Media.

Edited on, May 30, 2005, 12:30 AM GMT, by bdboy.

[Rabz]

What went wrong ???

the right thread should be WHAT WENT RIGHT in the lord's test...

in that way..we'll have nothing to write...

thus saving our time and energy...and the effort to even bother to think of writing something down...

also from next time..no one would even bother to see any bangladesh match...(not even any utterly most crazed bd crickt fan)...

and that way..our cricketers can save themselves from further humiliation in public...cuz..whoz to watch it ??

and they can also ride the bandwagon of learning curves for the rest of thier lives...

for god's sake..im tired our learning curves and participation honors...

not only in cricket...in any sport...

"ongshogrohon e muul uddeshsho"
how long we gonna beat that drum...we've bn beatin it since 72....

we send more officials than athlets in olympics...
we go and conceive 10 goals in a football wc qualifier...
our athlets have to write in bonds about not runnin away during any overseas tours...
our officials steals towel from toilet...
our athlets jumps in the pool even before the whistle and gets disqualified (as if she'd hv qualified anyway)
our runners dont even know where his hit is taking place..
national game kabaddi ? we cudnt even win a single gold medal in that game..not even in saf games...
and after tryin 20 million times ...we won like 1 gold in soccer...and may be champoin once ??
we've produced only one or two (?) gm in chess...among 150 millions....

and then came cricket...another game we play....
the only game we play where we even get the chance to stand with other top sporting nations of that field in the same room to take a pic....

but we play only to get whipped by everyone....

mates..the question should not be what went wrong at lords..but
whats wrong with our total sports arena...??

im not sayin we'd b world's best...but atleast we can stop ourselves from being humiliated by other nations everytime we go play some game in internationla level....

or else soon we'd b known to the whole world not only as the nation of poors with flood and cyclone..but also as the nation who is [edit] at every sport they play.... and just merely fills the gap...



Edited on, May 30, 2005, 12:25 PM GMT, by chinaman.

[PoorFan]

Everything went wrong, except nothing went right. They way they played two innings, is simply beyond any excuse, explanation ro even any condition. No one even seemed to try for a partnership, except Javed, Mushfique and Mashud. We are supposed to play a test!

[chinaman]

Originally posted by Sydney
..thus saving our time and energy...and the effort to even bother to think of writing something down...

also from next time..no one would even bother to see any bangladesh match..

and that way..our cricketers can save themselves from further humiliation in public...cuz..whoz to watch it ??..

for god's sake..im tired our learning curves and participation honors...

So, you want your kids to have master's degree, perhaps PhD even before they go to the elementary school? Thus saving you time and energy to correct their mis-spellings, saving you from humuliation from their exam blues, saving you from being sick and tired of the learning curves and parental participation honor?

Very nice. Very nice and rich indded. If you do find such short-cuts, please share with us.

[bdboy]

Everything went wrong. so what we can do now? except blame each other for this and that? If they don't know anything at all how come it was possible to come close to win in Pakistan. What you do say about Aus, WI and Zim tour. Who dose not want to play his best for his country. But they didn't.

When they well. You guys will start dancing again.

So if you share their joys when they do the best. You have to share their failure or badtime too.

If you don't. That's simply UNFAIR!!

[insideedge]

What went wrong in the Lord's? Same things that have gone wrong in the earlier tests.

What the BD players need is to play more matches with first class teams and A teams. These are the equivalents of school and college education before one can go for PHD ( test cricket). Just find out how many matches BD ( the test team) has played with first class teams and A teams and what have been the results.

BD test team have played about a dozen such matches and they have lost most of these matches. So unless the BD team regularly beats these teams, hopes of beating ( or even competing against test teams will remain a pipe dream.

Unless BD players pass the school (i.e. beat FC teams regularly) and College ( beat A teams of test nations regularly), they will remain hopelessly outclassed at the test match level.

So far BD have not been able to win against a single first class opposition. In many of this matches, they have suffered big defeats. One needs to set the record straight there. It is only then that one can talk of things going wrong at the test level. Going by records, BD goes wrong even in FC matches.

[chinaman]

Originally posted by insideedge
So far BD have not been able to win against a single first class opposition.

Forget about national team, even our High Performance team (A team) comprehensibly defeated Zim A team not too long ago.

I perfectly got your point and have pretty good idea where you're coming from. Let the experts say whatever pleases them. We all have some idea how other test nations were dealt with in their early days. It is just that the media wasn't advanced enough as it is today, to capture the knee-jerks of those times.

Our infrastructure is in place to produce the future PhDs. Time and again, we proved to have enormous growth potential in this sports. It is this potential that is counted towards gaining the elite status. It was like an investment from ICC's part. Some morons in the name of coaching drove us backwards but the return is not too far away.

Talking about PhDs, they too need some intriduction and orientation in a new placement.

The Riverside test might even be harder than the Lord's. But that is part of the inevitable bumpy ride. It's a ride nonethelees, so enjoy as much as you can for now if you want to.

[Mridul]

Originally posted by insideedge
What went wrong in the Lord's? Same things that have gone wrong in the earlier tests.

What the BD players need is to play more matches with first class teams and A teams. These are the equivalents of school and college education before one can go for PHD ( test cricket). Just find out how many matches BD ( the test team) has played with first class teams and A teams and what have been the results.

BD test team have played about a dozen such matches and they have lost most of these matches. So unless the BD team regularly beats these teams, hopes of beating ( or even competing against test teams will remain a pipe dream.

Unless BD players pass the school (i.e. beat FC teams regularly) and College ( beat A teams of test nations regularly), they will remain hopelessly outclassed at the test match level.

So far BD have not been able to win against a single first class opposition. In many of this matches, they have suffered big defeats. One needs to set the record straight there. It is only then that one can talk of things going wrong at the test level. Going by records, BD goes wrong even in FC matches.

u r absoloutly right......and this is the biggest problem....the only way we can improve our cricket when our team will play often against other A teams in different conditions.....otherwise we have to see these kind of humilation another 2-4 years...or may be more....our BCB heads should really think about it seriously