Life Below Stairs

Life at the bottom of world cricket's pile is tough and unforgiving. Players come and go, results mostly comprise a depressing mixture of defeats and the odd draw. The world's media are at best patronising, at worst damning.

This is what life has been like for Bangladesh ever since it became a Test playing nation almost ten years ago. A relentless but always cheerful and committed struggle, consistent failure punctuated with brief shafts of glory, as at Cardiff, June 2005.

The signs now are slightly better; a Test series has been won, and recent opportunities to beat England for the first time have been missed through a combination of opponents' brilliance and their own naivete. An outstanding player, Shakib Al Hasan, has been found, and the rest of the side is predominantly young, talented and optimistic.

For Zimbabwe's players things have been slightly different. For well-documented reasons they have usually been the recipients of sympathy rather than criticism; for the same reasons they haven't spent the same amount of time in the firing line as their Bangladeshi counterparts. Their recent victories in the Caribbean have signalled the possibility of a return to credibility, even if the great days of the past - of the Flowers, of Goodwin, of Johnson, of Streak, of Olonga - are gone for ever.

In small ways, things are looking up for both Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Unfortunately they can't play the West indies every week.