Bangladesh cricketers have the talent - Whatmore

Dav Whatmore once again pleaded with Bangladeshi fans to give their team a chance. "You must remember that not long ago we came within a whisker of winning in Multan," he said, after Bangladesh lost by an innings and 140 runs to India at the Bangabandhu stadium. "I can feel your frustration. Yes, the whole country's frustration, I can feel it. But I plead with everyone to please have some more patience. But the boys aren't doing this intentionally. They are working as hard as they can possibly to overcome [their flaws] to some degree. As long as you are showing some improvement, you give yourself a chance. Don't forget the opposition is pretty good, whoever we play."

Whatmore, who wears his passion for coaching and for this Bangladesh team on his sleeve, slammed Bangladesh's critics for suggesting that they were making a mockery of Test cricket. "That is absolute rubbish," he said. "I think that is a very shallow view. That is one that comes from looking at the scoreboard. You need to understand the game and understand the situation that Bangladesh is in globally. Those are very dangerous comments."

Whatmore also emphatically pooh-poohed the suggestion that Bangladesh lacked talent. "I don't think so, contrary to what some people may think. I honestly believe that the talent in this country is the same sort of talent that you get anywhere in the subcontinent. What we need is tougher competition to make the right decision under pressure. It's easy for you to say that the technique is not right but that's not correct."

But he conceded that things were not well enough. "We need to try and not hand the advantage to the opposition early. We need to do a bit of fighting to keep it even for a while. Now what's happening is that we are giving away the advantage early and the opposition is good. We can't really afford to do that."

At the same time, he said that it was no good simply fretting over the result. "You've got to forget the result really. We can't afford to be thinking, oh God, we've lost the game. What we are really trying to dig in and tease out is the actual reasons why, rather than the fact that we lost the match. We need to look at the attributions, the actual reasons why we are not doing well."