Bangladesh in Australia

[Donny]

Hookes calls for Australia to 'annihilate' Bangladesh
Wisden CricInfo staff - July 9, 2003

The former Australian batsman David Hookes has come down heavily on Bangladesh's cricket status, saying that Steve Waugh's Australians should humiliate them in the two-Test series that starts next week.

Hookes, now a prominent television commentator, sees a possibility of both Tests turning out to be one-day affairs. "Steve Waugh should send them in to bat, bowl them out before lunch, bat until tea and declare, then send them back in and roll them again before stumps," he said. "It could be all over and done with in a day. The reality is that Bangladesh doesn't deserve to be in Test cricket and they certainly shouldn't be given any favours out on the field."

Hookes added: "If the Australian team is being true to the Test cap, their aim will be go to out there and annihilate Bangladesh."

Australia, Test cricket's strongest side, take on Bangladesh in two Tests - starting at Darwin on July 18 and Cairns on July 25 - in a series that could see many new records set.

[Donny]

Darwin timings changed at broadcaster's behest
Wisden CricInfo staff - July 8, 2003


The business of international cricket revolves around television. As if to illustrate that truism, Cricket Australia has announced that it is changing the timings of the two Australia-Bangladesh encounters scheduled to be held in Darwin – a Test and a VB Series one-dayer – at the behest of the series broadcaster, the Nine Network.

The Test match was originally scheduled to begin at 10.30am Darwin time, and the one-day game at 9.45am – but at the request of Channel 9, both are now scheduled to begin at 9.30am.

James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive, explained the changes: "After consultation with various series stakeholders, Cricket Australia has agreed to bring the start of play forward to cater for the Nine Network's programming requirements. This decision will ensure that cricket fans around the nation get to see as much coverage as possible of these historic matches."

[Donny]

Bangladesh had the best of the first day's play against the NT Chief Minister's XI, dismissing them for 189 in the last over of the day.

Clarke top scored with 79. Mortaza took 3/28 and Mahmud, 3/43.

[Donny]

Unfortunately, the Bangers were unable to go on with it and were dismissed for 132 in 79 .1 overs.

Sarkar top scored with 34 and 7 of the 8 bowlers used took at least one wicket.

[Donny]

Bangladesh started well in their second innings with the ball, removing both openers with the score on 0.

The NT Chief Minister's XI is now 3/32 after Clarke just got bowled for 1. They are 82 ahead with 7 wickets left.

[Donny]

The score is 6/88.

Should be a good finish.

The NT XI are 138 ahead and time is not really an issue here as it's only day 3 of a scheduled 4 dayer.

[Donny]

NT XI all out for 136 so the Bangers need 187 to win.

At stumps, they were 1/32.

[Donny]

After 45 overs, Bangladesh are 4/90, requiring a further 97 to win.

McAdam has the good figures of 2/10 from 7 overs and Omar made a fighting 44.

[Donny]

Bangladesh aiming high
Wisden's Australian View by Chris Ryan - July 10, 2003

Cricket is famously fixated with highests, mosts, longests, quickests. The next eight days are all about firsts. First Test match ever played in Darwin. First game between Australia and Bangladesh. First time in living memory an Australian Test has started before 10am. And today was the first time Mohammad Latif, Bangladesh's team manager, had ever heard of Wisden.

"Wisden? What is this Wisden?" He inches forward in his chair, his smiling face wrinkling in confusion. "Well," I explain, "it's a ... it's a ..."

Can it really be that he's not familiar with Wisden? "It's a website and a magazine. And a really thick yellow book."

The average Bangladeshi household might know little of Wisden, but Wisden knows all about Bangladesh. In its latest edition the really thick yellow book documents no fewer than 30 Tests and one-day internationals involving the game's most bankable whipping-boys. Twenty-nine ended in defeat, all of them comprehensive. "Nowhere near good enough," scoffed one Wisden reporter. "Rootless domestic structure," observed another. Bangladesh's batsmen, it was noted, "lacked the technique and patience to counter quality bowling". Their medium-pacers were "innocuous".

"It is very sad, you know," says Latif. "We have won Test status by our strength, by playing good cricket. Our infrastructure is very good. We have under-13s, under-16s, under-19s. We have a development squad, a sports institute. Cricket is in our school curriculum. All over the country cricket is very, very popular. In every nook and corner Bangladeshis play cricket ... All right, at the World Cup we did not do well - it doesn't mean we should be criticised. I think they should encourage us."

Latif draws the same comparison everyone makes: New Zealand. It took the Kiwis 26 years before they finally won a Test. The difference, less frequently pointed out, is that New Zealand took two decades to play 20 Tests. Bangladesh will play their 20th next week, after a little over two years. Those easybeat New Zealand sides had time to regroup, rethink and remove the dead wood. For Bangladesh it's another day, another match, another slaughter.

"The more you play, the more experienced you are," is the way Latif sees it. But isn't all this too much too soon? "If you ask me, yes. Some more planning should have been done. We shouldn't have jumped up so suddenly." Better, he says, to have built up the domestic structure and started softly against Kenya, Zimbabwe and the like. "That way you can measure your strength. Then you go for South Africa or Australia, India or Pakistan. Slowly, gradually, you step forward."

The anti-Bangladesh carping has reached a crescendo since the team's arrival. Dennis Lillee, in his consistently cantankerous newspaper column, said that for Australia this series equals easy runs, easy wickets, easy money. Other commentators have pleaded for the hosts, in a show of mercy, to field their B team (which would be, in fact, what cricket confusingly calls it's A team). David Hookes believes the opposite, urging the Australians to clean up the Test in one day. Another first.

"The players have taken the criticisms very boldly," says Latif. "They have said: 'That's OK, we are going to show what we can achieve.' In one or two years we will definitely come up. Definitely. Soon after this Australian tour you will see the positives. In fact we are already seeing it."

Today they fielded sharply and bowled tidily enough, as a Northern Territory Chief Minister's XI sputtered along at around 1.5 runs an over. Last week they successfully hauled in 230 to beat an Australian academy side. And their net workouts have been "excellent sessions, excellent". A sports psychologist addressed team practice on Wednesday. Dav Whatmore, their coach, slogged outfield catches and the team's bus driver tossed forward some rudimentary throwdowns. Intensity was low, enthusiasm high. They have the strut of schoolboys - seven of the 15 players are 21 or under - but the smiles of winners.

Besides, what do they have to frown about? Those snide putdowns are just so much newspaper talk from smarmy southerners. Up here, in Australia's tropical north, the local folk offer nothing but praise. They buttonhole the players in the street, grasp their hands, wish them well. And the weather is as warm as the people. It might be the cool season but the mid-afternoon breeze still slaps you hard in the face. Just like back home, which is - reassuringly - only a six-and-a-half hour flight away.

"You cannot expect Bangladesh to win or anything like that," Latif admits. "But we are going to play very positive. In the one-day matches we must bat for 50 overs. In the Tests we must remain at the crease for five days. That will be a big thing for us." It would also, appropriately, be something of a first.

Speaking of firsts, Michael Clarke - who is leading the Chief Minister's XI - endured his first ever press conference as a captain on Wednesday. This was a moment of seismic historical significance, for Clarke is the odds-on favourite to be Australia's skipper a decade from now. It was a promising beginning. He grinned obligingly. He spouted the usual guff about the ground being in fantastic shape and the pitch looking good. He also, in keeping with the local dress code, wore white rubber flip-flops on his feet.

That was another first - and almost certainly a last.

[Donny]

They won by 2 wickets. Well done, Bangers !!

[Donny]

Gilchrist: Australia may struggle to raise game
Wisden CricInfo staff - July 14, 2003

Australia have been continuing their mind-games (or covering their backs, depending on how you look at it) ahead of the inaugural Test against Bangladesh at Darwin on Friday. Last week, Steve Waugh was warning that Australia were underprepared for the challenge. This week, Adam Gilchrist has been toing the party line.

"[The match] could be very difficult for us for a few reasons," said Gilchrist. "Not so much that where we are playing or who the opposition is. But it is a unique time of year and despite our month off, we have about 10 months on the road with a serious amount of cricket.

"It could be a feeling of difficulty to try and lift ourselves for that. I sense that there could definitely be a threat of that so we have got to make sure that we address it and don't let it slip in."

Gilchrist's fear of failure is relative. The Test has been described as cricket's biggest mismatch of all time, and last week the former Australian batsman, David Hookes, urged the Aussies to win the match inside a day. That prospect, however attainable, is extremely unlikely.

"We will keep using the word respect," said Gilchrist. "We will respect the fact that it's a Test match. And hopefully, if we win we'll be able to do it to a level that we are happy with and let Bangladesh know where the standard of being one of the best Test teams in the world is at."

Brett Lee was equally keen to put in a wholehearted performance. "I think that it is not fair on them if we don't go out there and try to put on a really good show," he said. "I think the best way to learn is for us to go out there and put on a really good performance against them. That's the way they can actually get better in Test cricket."

[Lazza]

I know that these days nearly everyone is putting shit on Bangdladesh as a test team & probably with much justification due to their terrible test record so far. But I just wonder how many people remember or realise that it took New Zealand 26 years after gaining test status to win their first test match?!! I also wonder if they had calls against them to be dropped from test cricket, be annihilated or humilated etc that the Bangles have recently endured!

Interesting!

Lazza

[Donny]

Good stuff, Lazza. Yes, people are quick to act sometimes without putting their brains into gear.

I remember when Sri Lanka first came onto the world cricket scene. It took them years to acclimatise and they were the butt of many jokes but they just kept working at it and have since won a World Cup and are competitive at Test level, especially at home.

They have produced world class players, such as Aravinda de Silva, Marvan Atapattu (5 Test double centuries !!) Sanath Jayasuriya, Muriah Murilitharan (whatever anyone thinks of his action) and Chaminda Vaas.

The Bangers arrived here with hardly a mention. I believe we (as a nation) should've welcomed them and made a bit more of an effort to introduce the players to the Australian cricketing public.

And they won't learn by being mollycoddled. The Aussies will treat them as any other opposition, as they did with Sri Lanka in their formative days.

I, for one, will be watching these upcoming Tests and ODIs with great interest.

[HAL]

Okay. . . . . . People are strange sometimes. . . . . . I am surprised it took so long.

[Donny]

Langer looking forward to Bangladesh series
Wisden CricInfo staff - July 15, 2003


It may have the look of the biggest mismatch in history, but Justin Langer insisted Australia's two-Test series against Bangladesh is important for the game.

Despite Bangladesh's woeful Test record: 18 losses out of 19 matches, Langer said he was looking forward to the series between the world's top and bottom-ranked teams, which starts at the Marrara Oval on Friday.

Langer said: "I will certainly be respectful to the Bangladeshis, they've earned the right to play Test cricket." He continued: "I'm looking forward to (it), particularly playing in Darwin and Cairns, it's a good opportunity for cricket."

He added: "It's great for cricket in general. I think it's important not to look at your own backyard, but it's always a bigger picture. It's great to have Bangladesh playing a Test match against Australia."

Talking on the new drop-in Darwin pitch, Langer said it looked magnificent: "The wicket looks nice and flat. I've played at a lot worse Test stadiums. It's going to be a great place to play."

Meanwhile, John Buchanan, the Australia coach, has told his team to ease off the sledging if they want to command the respect their achievements deserve. Speaking ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh, Buchanan said: "The players concerned let their team down and they let themselves down. They lose respect and team-mates are distracted."

This series follows Australia's tour of the Caribbean, which was marred by ugly and bitter confrontations, including Glenn McGrath and Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Steve Waugh and Brian Lara.