World Cup '99 and Bangladesh (13 July 1999)

13 July 1999

World Cup '99 and Bangladesh

Yousuf R Rahman

The entire British media including the cricketing pundits of recent times were well aware of the "Cup within the Cup" tie that was, perhaps the most talked about World Cup fixture in the Northern part of the UK.

Scotland is not the part of the UK where cricket is given much preference. In fact, the game is struggling there. The few Scottish players who aspire to make the grade, structure their cricketing plans with the sole ambition of getting a county contract in the south. Such is the story with Gavin Hamilton whose single-handed charges enabled Scotland to some form of respectability in the World Cup. Hamilton is a professional with Yorkshire and has been one of their leading players. He was, in fact, being considered for selection for the England team for the World Cup and was quite unlucky to be left out of the final 15-member squad, much to the resentment of former England fast bowler Freddie Truman.

Even their all rounder, James Brinkley dreams of securing a county contract in the south. As such, the fixture against Bangladesh was their roadblock to their dreams.

In order for Scotland to move ahead, they would have to beat Bangladesh and for them, just like Bangladesh, May 24 was D-Day and the beachhead had to be secured at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh.

When the Bangladesh team Manager Tanveer Muzhar stated to the Press before leaving for the UK, that winning a single match was an unlikely event, I am not sure if he was being just plain pessimistic or being sensibly cautious.

Not knowing the actual ability of the team and how they would cope with English conditions in May, he was not going to make any commitment about the performance of the team.

Knowing Tanna, I think the latter was the case. He was playing it safe.

The fact was that this Scottish team was a completely different outfit than that we saw play in Malaysia in 1997. Moreover, they had beaten Bangladesh convincingly last year in Scotland and had every reason to be confident.

We all know what happened on May 24. Bangladesh not only secured the beach head but also notched, for the record books, its first win in World Cup Cricket.

Although, in the end we won by a margin of 22 runs, it was not as easy as the result showed. Barring the two matches between Australia and South Africa (one tie semi-final match) and the India-Zimbabwe match in the opening rounds, this was perhaps the most emotionally played match of the tournament and was a game where fortunes continued to fluctuate through the day. In fact, had Gavin Hamilton not been accidentally run out, the result could have been different and our cricketers, heroes today, would have been dumped into the cold. But then, that's what the game is all about - a one ball affair.

For some reasons, somewhat unfair to many member countries, rules governing the ability of players to represent a nation, particularly that of Scotland did not make sense and was certainly not "cricket". Take for example the case of Gavin Hamilton, a member of Yorkshire c.c. of Scottish origin, plays in the county circuit and is good enough to be considered for the England squad. Just weeks before the World Cup tournament, he is hoping to play for England but then, gets canned. Does his chances of playing in the World Cup disappear? No.

He gets on a train, goes north, joins Scotland by virtue of his roots and qualifies to play for Scotland in the World Cup.

If England has the wide sphere of picking their squad from the entire UK, then the membership status of England should be UK and not England or they should include Scotland just like Wales and Ireland. Alternatively, players of Scottish origin cannot be considered for dual selection. I am, perhaps, giving too much work for the administrators of the ICC, but they should really sort this out.

I also felt that the match against Scotland should not have been played in Scotland. This is the World Cup and not a bilateral series. To be fair, it should have been played in a County ground somewhere in England.

England, perhaps, should not host the World Cup. The England Cricket Board considers their Cornhill Test Series more important than the World Cup and is not willing to compromise their dates. To stage the most prestigious cricket tournament in the month of May which, weather wise, is the most miserable part of their season does not make cricketing sense. Ten out of the twelve participants have had to come from temperatures ranging in the nineties. The players are suddenly thrown into the cold wet and windy conditions of May. No wonder everyone struggled in the early stages of the tournament. The top order failed miserably in 90 percent of the matches.

Teams like Australia barely qualified since their batting failed miserably.

The Pakistan top order failed in the first five matches they played.

Fortunately, their late middle order and tail scored runs and their bowlers were quite lethal.

Some of the venues left much to be desired. The grounds were small, in fact far too small to stage matches that involved Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. After all, the supporters from these three countries provided the maximum spectator entertainment throughout the tournament. Someone mentioned that had they known that the Bangladesh team would pull such huge spectator support, they would have found larger grounds for the Bangladesh matches. In each one of Bangladesh's matches, thousands of disappointed spectators could not get in as matches were all sold out. The "Carnival of Cricket" became a reality only due to the colourful and loud fans from the subcontinent and Bangladesh was easily the winner in the stands.

Much was written in the English Press about our supporters. They were wonderfully crazy, loud and cheered the players and the team regardless of the outcome of the match. It was treat to watch them - tiger costume and all armed with pots and pans (sourced from thousands of Bangladeshi owned curry houses in Britain) Memorable moment was when the Bangladesh and Scottish fans joined ranks, each in their own team's jerseys, and paraded the stands from one end to the other.

The Scots had their kilts while some of us had their lungis. It was fun "extraordinaire". If the South Africans wish to have some great fans in the next World Cup, get some Bangladeshis from the UK. Hats off them.

Public transportation to and from the grounds was at its low point. After the match against Australia at Chester Le Street, I waited for more than an hour for a taxi that was called in by the Durham Cricket Club (host club) Administrative Office. The taxi never showed up. I was then invited by the Bangladesh Team Manager to catch the team bus back to the hotel. Anywhere else, there would have been shuttle buses set up between the ground and the nearest public transportation place. This would have been the rationale thing to do.

The writer was known as Yousuf Babu when he played with much aplomb for Bangladesh in the 70s. The former national cricketer now works in the States.

Source :: The Daily Star