Picking up the pieces

Bangladesh, already struggling to be competitive at the top level, have now been left trying to scrape together a team to face New Zealand after a host of players left to join the ICL. Cricinfo looks at 11 other teams that have been riven by discord.

Australia 1884-85
Australia were beaten in the opening Test of the five-match series, and a dispute between the board and the players over, inevitably, money (the cricketers wanted to keep 50% of the gate) was unresolved by the time the selectors sat down to pick an XI for the second match. The entire side was dropped after they refused to back down, and a fresh XI, including nine debutants, was chosen. Although regarded as a full Test now, the team was billed as Combined Australia at the time. Regardless of their name, they were well beaten, and although some of the strikers returned for the next match, the dispute rumbled on until the following November. The irony was that the Australians were, in name only, amateurs and so not paid to play.

India 1936
India's first major series in England in 1932 had been a success, despite a few off-field issues, but in 1936 the second tour was an unmitigated disaster, not least because of the choice of captain. The Maharajah of Vizianagram was a poor cricketer and dreadful leader, whose arrogance utterly divided what was on paper a good squad. His most stupid move was to send home the best player, Lala Amarnath, on the flimsiest of excuses, and then to fall out with most of the other players. Vizzy insisted on playing in the Tests - in 1932 the captain, the Maharajah of Porbandar, had tactfully stood down for the major matches - and scored 33 runs at 8.25 as India were well beaten. Even his immense wealth and political influence could not save him, and he returned home to widespread vilification. Can one man have ever done so much to undermine a side's chances?

Yorkshire 1960s-1980s
For decades Yorkshire had an almost divine right to be among the leading counties - hence the old saying "If Yorkshire are strong, England are strong" - but by the 1960s they had an administration unable or unwilling to accept change, highlighted by its refusal to allow anyone not born inside the county to play for Yorkshire, and an increase in the power of players. Anyone who took on the board was jettisoned, and when players of the calibre of Ray Illingworth and Brian Close were unceremoniously sent packing, it was hardly surprising that the county went into decline. The nadir came with the seemingly endless rows centring around Geoff Boycott, a figure who polarised opinion and provoked special meetings, resignations and almost open warfare. As those outside the county looked on with bemusement, the club disintegrated into virtual civil war. Between 1969 and 2001 they won two one-day trophies; in the previous decade they had captured seven Championship titles.

Australia 1978-79
Cricket changed forever when Kerry Packer created the World Series. In the long run it probably saved the sport, pumping much-needed cash into the system and enlivening a game that was struggling to attract crowds. In the short term, as the split between the Packer players and official boards grew, teams were torn apart and left struggling to find replacements. Australia were especially hard hit and the 1978-79 Ashes series was a prime example. Graham Yallop led a patched-up team which lost 1-5 against an England side full of star players. "The competition from World Series Cricket put heavy demands on the Australian authorities, and the game at large suffered from an over-heavy programme and too much exposure on television," said Wisden. It was the start of a tough decade for Australia.

Sri Lanka 1982-83
Less than seven months after they played their first Test, Sri Lanka were stunned when in September 1982 it emerged that 14 cricketers, six who had just returned from a tour of India, had agreed to break an international ban and play in apartheid South Africa. Government pressure seemed to have paid off when on October 9 it was announced the tour had been scrapped, but it was a ruse, and the players headed off in secret before anyone in authority realised they had been duped. Those who took part in the seven-week trip were banned by the Sri Lankan board for 25 years. Unlike the loss of players from Zimbabwe two decades later, Sri Lanka had enough depth to shake off the setback.

England 1982 & 1989-90
South Africa's sporting isolation impacted cricket around the world and England was the first country to send a rebel side, Graham Gooch's team in 1982. Other major names included were Geoff Boycott, Dennis Amiss, Chris Old and Derek Underwood, although most were approaching the end of their careers. All those who went were handed three-year bans and most didn't play for England again, although two, John Emburey and Wayne Larkins, did. In 1989-90 another tour arrived in South Africa, led by Mike Gatting, following which the players were again handed three-year terms. Emburey went on his second tour and served his second ban. Gatting returned to Test cricket in 1992-93, Emburey made another comeback at the same time, and Neil Foster played one more Test, against Australia in 1993.

Zimbabwe 2003
There had been rumblings that all was not well in Zimbabwe since 2000, although a few premature retirements and emigrations had not really registered on the cricket radar. But at the 2003 World Cup the famous black-armband protest by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga raised awareness, and the real rot set in the following year when the board, by then heavily policitised, took on the players in a thinly veiled attempt to cleanse the side, and the administration, of anyone who did not fit in with its political and racial image. In the following years most leading players retired, and as Zimbabwe itself descended into chaos, so did its cricket. By 2006, Zimbabwe Cricket had suspended itself from Test cricket - most realised that, in the light of some embarrassing performances, it had jumped before it was pushed - and had become a virtual pariah, of use only within the ICC, where board chairman Peter Chingoka's votes counted more than concerns over the state of the country's cricket.

USA 2004-present
Cricket has struggled to conquer the USA, and when you look at the team they fielded for the 2004 Champions Trophy it's easy to see why. They were an aging side, and Clayton Lambert, the former West Indies opener, was their star player. Two huge defeats predictably followed against New Zealand and Australia. Meanwhile major problems were brewing back across the pond. The constitution was ripped apart and the ICC suspended the USA board in 2006 for mismanagement. Now, after a long time, there are finally shoots of a recovery; but it's a long road.

West Indies 2004-05
The current dispute between Stanford and Digicel, which is threatening the 20/20 for 20, isn't the first time that Caribbean cricket has come to blows in this way. In March 2005 the team was shorn of seven key players, including Brian Lara, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, because they refused to end personal sponsorship deals with Cable and Wireless, a direct rival of the team sponsor, Digicel. The team for the first Test against South Africa was a patched-up affair, but they dominated a drawn game. Then the main players returned after agreeing to end the C&W deals. However, it was a short-term fix and the issue came to a head again before the tour of Sri Lanka a few months later. Leading players refused to sign new WICB contracts and a threadbare team went for the tour. They were comfortably beaten 2-0, and although contracts were eventually sorted, it has been an uneasy truce since.

Ireland 2007
Irish cricket had never known anything like it when they beat Pakistan and Bangladesh and secured a draw against Zimbabwe, progressing into the Super Eights of the World Cup. However, for a country with limited cricket infrastructure it was always going to be hard to maintain the momentum. The following summer Jeremy Bray, the opening batsman, made himself unavailable and players refused to speak to the media after one match, against Netherlands, in protest over unpaid fees. On top of this, county contracts took away key individuals and the team needed rebuilding. For new coach Phil Simmons it was a tough task. Matches against major nations have been a struggle to organise, but at least they have remained at the top against their fellow Associates.

New Zealand 2008
When a team has the limited resources of New Zealand to start with, to lose a leading strike bowler - and one of the best in the world - is a painful blow. Shane Bond chose to join the ICL to secure his future before the IPL was even born. New Zealand promptly banned him; and he wasn't the only one: Lou Vincent, who wasn't involved at the time, also put his lot in with the ICL, as did Andre Adams, Hamish Marshall and Daryl Tuffey, all of whom could still have returned to international cricket. The challenge facing New Zealand was clear as they struggled to fill the gaps with youngsters. That they can still punch above their weight, especially in one-day cricket, is to their immense credit.