Popular: ICC rankings | Bangladesh Premier League | A Zia

Series

	Series


Pakistan v England
Commonwealth Bank Series
New Zealand v Zimbabwe
Bangladesh Premier League
ICC Intercontinental Cup
More current and future series

Countries

	Countries


Australia	Afghanistan	Other Countries
Bangladesh	Canada	Women's Cricket
England	Ireland	ICC
India	Kenya	Beyond the Test World
New Zealand	Netherlands
Pakistan	Scotland
South Africa	USA
Sri Lanka
West Indies
Zimbabwe

Live Scores

	Live Scores

Fixtures

	Fixtures

Fixtures Home

Live Coverage

Current and Future Tours

International Calendar

Results

	Results

Commercially unfeasible opponents

England mull scrapping home series against Bangladesh

Cricinfo staff

December 20, 2008

Comments: 34 | Text size: A | A

The high ratio of one-sided games involving Bangladesh make it an unattractive proposition to invite them © AFP

Enlarge

England are planning to scrap home Test series against Bangladesh after 2010 because of the increasing commercial unfeasibility of such contests, suggest reports in the UK press.

The move, if formalised at an ECB-organised conference next month, will come as yet another blow to a Bangladesh side struggling to justify its status as a Test-playing nation; they are already an unattractive invitee for India, which has refused to invite them for a tour since they became the tenth country to receive Test status in 2000.

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, told reporters in Mohali about plans to hold a conference next month in which ways to ensure the primacy of Test cricket will be discussed. According to the Independent, members of the England team, former England cricketers and directors of cricket at the 18 counties will meet in Leicester on January 19.

Among other things on the agenda will be the quality of Test cricket and the number of one-sided contests. England, Clarke revealed, will not play Zimbabwe till they have a side of reasonable standard and, after 2010, will not invite Bangladesh, choosing instead to play there.

"If we are going to have a proper strategy for Test cricket we want to have games like that we have just had in Chennai," Clarke said. "It showed everybody just what a Test can be. There is a very hard-fought game between Australia and South Africa taking place in Perth at the moment. We have to make sure that the standard is there. Our friends in India feel pretty similarly."

A spokesman for the ECB, however, downplayed Clarke's stance. "The meeting on January 19 is designed to discuss every aspect of international cricket, from over-rates to crowds to development to staging," he told Cricinfo. "It's about seeking an improvement at every level, not about deciding who England should play."

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) said it would not react to Clarke's comments. "We have nothing to say at this stage unless we receive any official communication from the ECB on this matter or from the ICC," Jalal Yunus, BCB's media committee chairman, said.

An ICC spokesperson told Cricinfo that it expected all current FTP commitments to be fulfilled, and any subsequent arrangements would only emerge after the ICC board had decided on a way forward after the current FTP ends in 2012.

"The ICC expects all its members to fulfill their obligations under the FTP," the official said. "The ECB will fulfill this obligation by hosting Bangladesh in 2010. The nature of the ICC's FTP after 2012 is currently under discussion within the ICC board. From the ICC's perspective, we would like all members to play each other as often as possible. If the ECB chairman has a specific view on this, he can put them before the ICC board, of which he is a director."

According to the FTP, Bangladesh tour England in May 2010 for two Tests and three ODIs. Bangladesh, who were given Test status in 2000, have only one win in 57 Tests, that too against Zimbabwe. Though they have come close to upsetting Pakistan, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, they have mostly struggled to avoid heavy defeat.

A mass defection of players to the ICL recently has also severely depleted their resource pool. With India, cricket's current financial centre, already not keen on hosting them, Clarke's comments suggest they won't soon be touring the spiritual home of cricket, which will only intensify the scrutiny on their Test status.

Comments: 34

Posted by Alphabeta on (December 25 2008, 13:08 PM GMT)

Their ratings can't fall further - their current rating points is 0!! If you believe that they should play 3 day matches against non-test playing nations, then you clearly agree that their test status should be revoked. Finally, I don't understand all of the complaints about BCCI, how does the responsibility of improving Bangladesh's cricket fall on any other nation's/ entity's shoulder??!

Posted by Vilander on (December 22 2008, 06:19 AM GMT)

guys they are only scrapping home series - they still would play bangla in bang'desh. The point is the bangladesh should not play in top test challenges yet like playing sa,ind,aus, or playing eng in eng or sl in sl, they have to start playing wi,nz,pak and sl in conditions where they have more chance this is very important else they will continue to get trashed by the stronger teams and their rating will plummet further with it the economic fesability to host them which is far more dangerous to bang cricket than just loosing some tough test serise' which they will not even come close to loosing gracefully in any case. Another plan should be for bang to organise 3 day matchs with ireland, kenya etc

Posted by Rongila on (December 21 2008, 18:48 PM GMT)

Truth is stranger than fiction.bcb should take necessary steps.,not to play any test match 1 year.make the player ready for such a international codition.but sad but true is bcci is not keen to improve cricket bd.

Posted by NakibAhmed on (December 21 2008, 17:06 PM GMT)

well,first things first,iam bangladeshi,and never met a bigger supporter of our cricket than me....but this indeed is the truth,bangladesh never did show any signs of improvement in the test arena,they really dont stand a chance against ANY of the teams above them,so why should anybody want to see a lifeless competition?But i think scrapping a whole country out of your home test fixtures is just a bit too harsh for this young team,the only way they WILL improve is,by playing against these oppositions,right?

Posted by Alphabeta on (December 21 2008, 13:51 PM GMT)

Excellent move by the ECB and all other cricket boards should follow. Bangladesh is by no means a new entrant after 8 years - no other team has ever had such a miserable record after 8 tears and 57 matches - there is clearly no room for development!! You always have to be anxious about which respected cricket record is going to be easily broken when Bangladesh is playing; for instance when Hayden broke Lara's record, could anyone who really loves cricket respect that record (and I really am not attacking Hayden - he did what he was being paid to do)!! Truly, if it were not for Fantasy Cricket I would not even know when Bangladesh is playing, so I could imagine the losses that countries suffer to host them . . . and yes, to state the obvious for some of you out there, economics necessarily plays a big part in in the successful management of a cricket board, or any entity!!!

Posted by jemand123 on (December 21 2008, 13:21 PM GMT)

I think Test cricket should be limited to top 6 only . It's the only way to make test cricket more attractive!!! Banglaland is a Test playing nation accept it!!

Posted by Vkarthik on (December 21 2008, 12:01 PM GMT)

Finally someone has woken up. There is a reason why India doesn't host Bangladesh. All the countries were hosting them without even asking them simple questions like "What's the point". Better late than never.

Posted by CricketPissek on (December 21 2008, 11:31 AM GMT)

i have sympathy for the Bangladeshi fans, but there's the ECB kinda has a point. As a Sri Lankan, i know of our struggle to get a decent tour out of countries like England, South Africa, and Australia back in the 80s and 90s. In fact, i remember even after proving ourselves as worthy test cricketers (with home victories and an away series win against a good new zealand side) England still insulted us with only a ONE OFF test match in 1998! But the key difference is, Sri Lanka put their money where their mouth was and BEAT england in this one off test! (Murali's match - August 1998, but Jayasuriya hit 213 and de Silva also hit a century) So until Bangladesh can actually, 1) win matches at home 2) prove their salt in the few tours they DO get, i'm afraid this trend will only continue. Sri Lanka has hosted them because they can relate to it, but there IS a limit (politics aside)

Posted by yafi on (December 21 2008, 10:14 AM GMT)

Sorry to say viewers another sad news for Bangladeshi cricket as England are planning to scrap home test series with Bangladesh. After all this year of playing in test arena this is not what many would liked to see. A Bangladeshi team well supported with some top managers has failed to stood tall in a game call cricket! It's a shame for all of us from Bangladesh. I think BCB should stop this madness right now before another breaking news published to the world. It's like a deafeated and wounded tiger under media spotlight focused on her bleeding from the wound..... It's not a game of cricket anymore.

Posted by NorthStar on (December 21 2008, 10:12 AM GMT)

Bangladesh needs to play with its immediate seniors in terms of ranking if not the highest ranked countries.It's ridiculous to say that they aren't improving.The players are still young and many have them are banned due to ICL.Nevertheless they have managed to stun NZ and performed their best in SA recently.Some points must be noted: #At the last ENG tour attendance was decent in the tests and great in the ODIs. #@kingofspain :: "NZ's recent tour for evidence. These games are completely one-sided" - true for tests.But the first 4 days of the 1st test was one-sided and that side was BD. #@Others :: India rejected to host BD since it got the status.If you say that they aren't improving so giving them chance to play isn't helping,the question is,when did you give the chance?

| Read all 34 comments

Comments have now been closed for this article

Top

Feedback

ESPNcricinfo staff

View all articles »