As the Crowe flies in the wrong direction...

Mr. Martin Crowe is once again caught spewing generous doses of oral vitriol. In his latest outburst Crowe has come down heavily, among other things, on the candidature of some fledgling sides of international cricket. I am an admirer of Crowe's frankness of expression at most times but on this occasion I failed to agree with his skewed notion.

Crowe browses through Bangladesh's Test graph and announces:

It would be understandable if someone disregards the 'easy' feats achieved by other teams against the present Bangladesh and Zimbabwe sides. It sounds harsh but it is also common sense. But Crowe's ignorance of the constant improvement shown by Bangladesh and willingness to dismiss the team as a 'never-going-to-make-it' side on the basis of self-satisfying evidence betrays prejudice unexpected of a former great cricketer.

The bitter part about this latest Crowe blunder: people otherwise respectful of his country's cricketing heritage are now forced to remind him of the struggle that his own beloved New Zealand Test side returned over THIRTY long years of taking flight. Before they finally became a good side, that is.

We assume Mr. Martin Crowe needs a refresher on that episode. Well the 52 Test matches New Zealand played in their first 31 years [10th Jan 1930 to 31st Dec 1960] yielded exactly 1 Test win and 27 losses for them, not quite unlike the Bangladesh figures over 'just six years' and 'staggering 44 tests'. On the other hand Bangladesh can claim that the mid-20th-century New Zealanders were far more fortunate to be playing fewer Test matches at such hopeless times and getting their own sweet time to recover between dampening defeats.

Those stats for Bangladesh tell a sorry tale indeed. But the team has flashed some signs of 'growing up' in the last third of this six year period. The fawns of Test cricket have shown their elder brothers that they need some more time, and then they will also join the merry sprint.

Development of a quality team involves investment of time, talent and - importantly - patience. And this last mentioned virtue needs to be shown by the protagonists and audiences alike. Belonging to a nation that shares Bangladesh's history of struggle during early days, Martin Crowe could be expected to speak up for a slowly improving new entrant rather than recommending guillotine for them.

Coming to think of it, if more people like Martin Crowe existed in the power corridors of cricket during the 1950's and 60's then some team might have had to relinquish Test status after a declaration that 'they simply aren't going to make it' and we might never have seen a fine Test batsman named Martin Crowe playing for a well admired side lovingly called the Kiwis.