Going will be tough for minnows Bangladesh
Bangladesh cricket has come a long way since I took a private team to Dhaka in 1985
Omar Kureishi
29-Aug-2001
Bangladesh cricket has come a long way since I took a private team to
Dhaka in 1985. Kamal Z. Islam was then the president of the Bangladesh
cricket board and I have yet to meet a man who loved the game of
cricket more than he did.
He invested his time and his own money to support the game and it was
on his insistence that I rounded up a team that included Imran Khan
and many Test cricketers and we went to Dhaka.
Kamal Islam has nothing more to do with Bangladesh cricket having been
'ousted' in the shuffle that is characteristic of the subcontinent,
though he still is an ardent cricket fan. The visit of my team to
Bangladesh is a distant memory and most people have forgotten about it
and barring Kamal Islam, no one in Bangladesh cricket has even
bothered to thank me.
But I was delighted when Bangladesh cricket was given Test status.
They will find the going tough and they must not set their sights too
high nor should the cricket public in that country to raise their
expectations sky-high.
Bangladesh will be playing its first Test match against Pakistan at
Multan as a part of the Asian Test Championship. It is a big occasion
for them even though, realistically, Bangladesh must know that it is
the outsider in this tournament, now reduced to three teams with the
pull-out of India, a pull-out that is nakedly political.
I know very little of the Bangladesh team so it is hard to say how
they will shape up against Pakistan. But nothing can be taken for
granted in cricket, Pakistan will be without Shoaib Akhtar who has
ruled himself out on the ground that he is lacking in match fitness.
Pakistan will also be without Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi, both
playing county cricket in England. But Wasim Akram is in the team and
appears to be fully fit.
Wasim is now reaching that stage in his career when he will need to
prove himself every time he plays. It's a cruel world and one can't
live off past glories. Wasim says that he still has a couple of years
of cricket in him and I don't doubt it but this means that he will
need to stay fit. A cricketer's career begins and ends the same way,
with anxiety. I have been one of those who has supported Wasim Akram
but he must not count on it, unless he delivers.
I am undecided about Steve Waugh's decision to play in The Oval Test
match. Clearly he was determined to be on the field rather than on the
balcony when the curtain came down on the Ashes series. But equally,
he was unfit. Yet he went on to make 157, batting or rather, hobbling
on one foot. He has been praised for his courage but would he still
have played had the fate of the Ashes been undecided?
He played for personal glory and, in my view, has set a bad example.
It is wrong on principle to go into a match less than a hundred per
cent fit. Besides, he denied an opportunity to Simon Katich who, on
that feather-bed Oval wicket, could have made some runs.
The Australians, by and large have stuck to a winning team. Michael
Slater was dropped for the Oval Test for "disciplinary reasons" and
Justin Langer got a chance which he took with both hands with a superb
century. But Australia has persisted with Brett Lee and certainly at
The Oval would have been better served by Colin Miller.
Every Test match in the Ashes series was played before full houses.
Certainly in England, Test cricket is alive and kicking. This, despite
the vagaries of the weather and that the series was one-sided.
Kandy does not seem to be Sri Lanka's happy hunting ground and Saurav
Ganguly's men have been able to level the series, with the Indian
captain finally running into form. The Sri Lankans have made a
conscious effort to change the character of their wickets, opting for
more bounce.
This is a healthy development for Sri Lanka can't keep depending on
Muttiah Muralitharan who, though, still a great bowler, will have to
hang up his bowling shoes one day. But what a terrific character he
is. Buoyed by his promotion in the batting order, he came a number
nine, he played a joyful innings, knocking the ball all over the park
and making 67 of 60 balls. He can now press his claim to being an allrounder. It has become a good series and the Indians looked far more
focused and determined than they did at Galle.
Finally, a few word about Mike Atherton. Although he had not
officially announced his retirement, he was given a standing ovation
when he walked back to the pavilion after being out in the second
innings and the Australian fielders joined in the applause.
Atherton has served England cricket well, both as captain and a
player. Though he has had his moments when television cameras
discovered that he had dirt in his pockets and which he was using to
rough up the ball. Then in 1996, he had called a Pakistani journalist
a "joker" at a press conference in Rawalpindi. Apparently Cambridge
had not smoothed some rough edges. But he has struggled with a bad
back for a long time. I am sure he would have wanted to go out with a
bang, with a Test hundred.
But The Oval seems to be an unsentimental ground. Donald Bradman
playing his last match was bowled by Eric Hollies for a duck and in
1962, Fazal Mahmood had taken quite a battering from England's
batsmen.
Needless to say that England will have a hard time in finding someone
to take Atherton's place. Too much one-day cricket has made the
specialist opening batsman obsolete. Now the theory is that anyone can
open a Test innings, even an Abdur Razzaq.