Whatmore defends Test status

Dav Whatmore: standing up for his men © Getty Images

Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh's coach, has defended their Test status after their defeat to England by an innings and 261 runs - the 10th largest in Test history. Asked by reporters if Bangladesh should retain the right to play Test cricket, Whatmore said: "The simple answer to that is yes. Trying to achieve what everyone wants us to achieve is tough but to solely take Bangladesh out of international status full representation is just pure folly, ridiculous.

"We need to have a means to an end," he continued. "We've got all the potential ingredients, it's incredible." Bangladesh is a cricket-mad country of 140 million people, and some of their teenage players are considered to be as good as good as any in their age group in the world.

Whatmore said that despite the series of defeats Bangladesh have endured, they still retain the capacity to win. "The confidence does get knocked around a bit," he said, "and we've got to guard against that. But having said that we had a lot of losses and came across a great victory against India [a 15-run win in a one-day international at Dhaka]."

"And then we backed that up with a history-making Test and one-day series win against Zimbabwe," Whatmore continued. "It is possible to get beaten, beaten, beaten and win."