Bangladesh Cricket - heading in the right direction?

The future prospects of Bangladesh cricket looks bright

Is it easy to be a recognized team in the international cricketing circuit? Well, the answer is NO. But, for an internationally recognized team, isn’t it easier to improve? For a team like Bangladesh, the chances to improve are many – not even teams like Ireland and Netherlands get to play as much international cricket as Bangladeshi cricketers do – but is Bangladeshi cricket heading in the right direction?

The recently concluded World T20 saw the Bangladeshi fans dejected. With the WC being played at home, the hopes from the Bangladeshi fans were high but all these hopes were shattered. You would expect a team like Bangladesh to beat a side like Hong Kong, which is very low on international experience but the loss to Hong Kong proved that there’s something seriously wrong in the Bangladeshi dug-out. For some apparent reason, the Bangladeshi cricketers are just not able to deliver on the field when required.

Prior to the World T20, we had the Asia Cup held at Bangladesh. Again, the hopes were high from the Bangladeshi fans. And to some extent, the Bangladeshi cricketers did manage to secure the faith but as they say ‘you never know’ in cricket. Failing to defend the mammoth total of 330 v Pakistan or in the very next match failing to defend 250 against Sri Lanka even though Sri Lanka were 100-5, simplifies the important point that somewhere the Bangladeshi team is going wrong. In cricket, you need to hold your nerves and come out as the winner in important matches, if a team fails to do this – it’s the team management’s role to see where the team is going wrong.

During the recently concluded World T20, one of cricketing greats on commentary (I rather not take his name), was heard questioning the attitude of some Bangladeshi players stating – ‘some of the senior Bangladeshi players look almost certain that they will never be dropped from the side and hence the casual attitude.’ The comment to some extend maybe very harsh but cricket is an emotional game and on the line, are the hopes of cricket fans who always want their team to do well.

Bangladesh has had many matches going their way but had lost these matches due to their own silly mistakes; a match where everything was going right for Bangladesh suddenly turns into a match where nothing is going their way. Why isn’t Bangladesh cricket able to persist with a certain quality of cricket? Is it the lack of match practice? No. Minnows like Netherlands and Hong Kong merely get to play cricket and yet they beat sides like England and Bangladesh respectively.

Bangladesh suffers from the two different spectrum that it plays, what I mean is – on one end we have a Shakib Al Hasan bowling at 5.00 RPO in a T20 match and on the other hand, we have a Bangladeshi bowler getting smashed at 10.00 RPO or maybe more. Similarly, on one end we have a Tamim Iqbal thrashing international pacers and reaching to a brisk 30 and on the other end, we have a batsman trying to imitate Iqbal’s style and getting out cheaply just because of trying to hit a boundary.

It sounds easier and to be very fair to Bangladesh, it’s harder to implement it on the field. It’s the truth that the Bangladeshi cricket board is not as rich as say the cricket board of India or Australia and hence cannot spend much on the expenditure or providing their players with quality domestic cricket to help them sharpen their game which of course the board would want to do but it’s the expenses which it cannot afford.

The bright prospect

In the U19 World Cup held earlier this year, the U19 team from Bangladesh managed to win the hearts of many Bangladeshi cricket fans, putting forward a very satisfactory performance, even managing to beat New Zealand’s U19 team. We have to understand that for Bangladesh cricket this has to be a huge motivating factor, considering the facilities provided to these young Bangladeshi cricketers.

Even though Shakib, Iqbal, Mishfiqur are considered as the most experienced players of the side, we have to understand that these 3 are fairly young and are still learning. Putting too much pressure on them, would be highly unfair. The Bangladeshi cricket fans must understand that it may take some more time for Bangladeshi team to beat the top sides of the world cricket but at least, the process has started and the future looks bright in young players like Mominul Haque and the U19 players coming forward.