7.6.10

A Giant Amongst Pygmies

All the talk on Radio Five Live this morning - largely thanks to what Geoff Boycott and Michael Vaughan said on TMS yesterday - appeared to be about the future of Bangladesh as a Test playing nation.

True, Bangladesh were abysmal in the final two sessions of the Old Trafford Test, and, once Tamim was out early yesterday afternoon in overcast, seaming conditions, it was only a matter of time before the end came. But, in the short attention-span world of the media, it's easy to forget that they're improving (albeit very slowly) and it would make no sense to downgrade or remove their Test status after just ten years. Vaughan's lazy comment that a Test-class batsman only had to concentrate to make a century against Bangladesh didn't say much for the 'concentration' of most of England's batsmen, but Boycott made a worthwhile contribution with his commonsense suggestion that the ICC should pay for Bangladesh to tour the world playing domestic sides in unfamiliar conditions. Not that that's very likely to happen.

So, for the time being, Bangladesh are stuck with having to rely on a timid, ineffectual bowling attack and an order propped up by the mighty Tamim. In him, they at least have a batsman of world-class behind whom they can rally. However, as opposing sides begin to probe his weaknesses and the pressure of carrying the side begins to weigh him down (if it ever does), they're going to need others to step forward. No wonder Jamie Siddons doesn't have any hair.

As the Third Man highlights here, a good start might be for the others to do what Tamim, for all his gifts, apparently feels he does better than his less talented compatriots.

Work harder.

7 comments:

Thiru Cumaran said...

TBH, it doesn't help when you have idiots like Geoff Boycott and Michael Vaughan talking about anything (frankly, i have no respect for both of 'em).

Like Andrew Miller wrote on Cricinfo during the 2nd test, Bangladesh's progress shouldn't be measured by whether they win or not, but by the number of sessions they dominate in a match.

I think that, if Bangadesh were a 40% complete Test nation before the series, I would give them 65% now. Considering that the conditions are pretty foreign to what you get in Bnagladesh, they did really well, dominating a number of sessions and actually making people (including Straussy) think "Oh shit, is this gonna be the day?"

Viva La Banglas!

Brian Carpenter said...

Cheers, Thiru.

As I said, the international cricket community must stick with Bangladesh, and I'm sure they will.

Dean @ Cricket Betting Blog said...

Heard Boycott say quite a lot during first test that Bangladesh should have, or be, (can't remember which) touring the test playing nations playing 1st class games.

While that sounds sensible, surely it is too late now. It should have been done at the start, 10 years ago.

To do it now would only undermine the team, and be seen as a negative.

It is too easy to just say "throw them out of test cricket", but it is not productive to say or do this in my opinion, and I agree it is a cheap shot from Vaughan, at least Boycott tried to be constructive.

Think Vaughan has a bit to learn in the world of media.

And in fairness to Bangladesh in 6 of their last 7 tests (2 V India, 4 V Eng, and 1 V New Zealand), someone has scored a century, and the game no one got a century in, someone scored 90+.

This is a better ratio of centuries than England's test standard batsmen have managed over the same period.

Don't suppose Vaughan checked his stats before making such remarks.

Brian Carpenter said...

Vaughan was talking condescending rubbish.

Boycott's suggestion had some merit, but it would have to mean longer tours including Tests and lots of other matches, not taking them out of Test cricket, which would serve no useful purpose at all.

In general I like Boycott on the radio but he does have a tendency to make his mind up about teams and players and, once he does that, won't alter his view, or, in many cases, even show basic respect to the people involved.

Barry said...

Most of their batsmen now at least average around 30 and didn't Australia collapse when it swung around at Lord's and Edgbatson last year?

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Brian Carpenter said...

Cheers Greyblazer, I'll have a look.

Dean @ Cricket Betting Blog said...

Brian, I agree Vaughan was very condescending.

As I stated he has a lot to learn in the world of media.

Being a follower of football for my sins (I know that can be blasphemous on a cricket site), I hear this sort of rubbish all the time, when a commentator makes himself look stupid by leaving himself with nowhere to go after being critical and ending up with egg on his face.

Don't think it will be too long before Vaughan comes unstuck.

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