James McKeown
Bangladesh and ICC Champions Trophy
November 23rd 2006 03:10
]In order to make this ICC Champions Trophy which is fast losing favour among the experts and pundits, ICC decided to make this year's tournament more competetive. A way of doing that was by having the weaker ODI teams compete with each other to qualify so that only the top teams played each other for the most part of the tournament!
Bangladesh happens to be the second weakest cricket side in the world... so the entire world more or less knew that it was going to be Sri Lanka and West Indies qualifying.
Thats exactly what happened!! That was expected! Great! Thats not what bothers me!
What bothers me is the way Bangladesh surrendered against West Indies yesterday! What bothers me is the poor and flawed strategy devised by the Bangladeshi think tank! What bothers me is Aftab AGAIN got a start, AGAIN hammered the bowlers and AGAIN threw away his wicket! What bothers me is that Shahriar Nafees AGAIN got a start and AGAIN failed to get a big one!! What bothers me is that Bangladesh were cruising at one point at 98/1 and YET AGAIN they collapsed to be bundled out for 161.
Batsman no 4 and 5 both scored ducks! Batsman no 5 happens to be the captain Bashar himself!! Bashar is a very mediocre batsman but his batting style is sufficient to handle the subcontinent wickets yet he failed!! He came in at a crucial time.. when a wicket fell and he knew all he had to do was just stay there and build partnerships! See there's no point even saying these things now.. becoz these ppl are obviously more knowledgable about cricket then me and obviously someone like Bashar, a veteran of more than 100 ODIs maybe knows that when u come in at the middle when a partnership just ended.. u dont try too many stuff but just stay there.
But what bothered me the MOST was Mohammad Ashraful being sent in to open the innings!! I do not know what is wrong with all the captains and coaches in this world today!! They simply do not seem to understand the importance of openers laying the platform!! I do not know how this idea changed because openers were always considered the most important batsmen who would build a partnership, try to bat 50 overs, build a platform for the lower order batsmen to capitalise! Yet we see India, Pakistan and now Bangladesh experimenting with various people as openers! Mohammad Ashraful is NOTan opener! Period!! He is a batsman who has concentration problems, temperament problems, and just when he was beginning to look a bit settled as a number 4 batsman.. these people send him at the top to open!!
I am not saying Bangladesh would have won the match if Ashraful batted at 4. But I am saying that maybe Bangladesh would have a chance of posting a defending total of 250 if they had solid openers and Ashraful coming in at 4. Becoz Bangladesh sorely missed him in the middle becoz both Saqib at 4 and Bashar at 5 could only manage ducks!!
I hope these dickheads realize their mistakes, and come up with proper strategies next time! But the problem is.. they never learn!!
Bangladesh happens to be the second weakest cricket side in the world... so the entire world more or less knew that it was going to be Sri Lanka and West Indies qualifying.
Thats exactly what happened!! That was expected! Great! Thats not what bothers me!
What bothers me is the way Bangladesh surrendered against West Indies yesterday! What bothers me is the poor and flawed strategy devised by the Bangladeshi think tank! What bothers me is Aftab AGAIN got a start, AGAIN hammered the bowlers and AGAIN threw away his wicket! What bothers me is that Shahriar Nafees AGAIN got a start and AGAIN failed to get a big one!! What bothers me is that Bangladesh were cruising at one point at 98/1 and YET AGAIN they collapsed to be bundled out for 161.
Batsman no 4 and 5 both scored ducks! Batsman no 5 happens to be the captain Bashar himself!! Bashar is a very mediocre batsman but his batting style is sufficient to handle the subcontinent wickets yet he failed!! He came in at a crucial time.. when a wicket fell and he knew all he had to do was just stay there and build partnerships! See there's no point even saying these things now.. becoz these ppl are obviously more knowledgable about cricket then me and obviously someone like Bashar, a veteran of more than 100 ODIs maybe knows that when u come in at the middle when a partnership just ended.. u dont try too many stuff but just stay there.
But what bothered me the MOST was Mohammad Ashraful being sent in to open the innings!! I do not know what is wrong with all the captains and coaches in this world today!! They simply do not seem to understand the importance of openers laying the platform!! I do not know how this idea changed because openers were always considered the most important batsmen who would build a partnership, try to bat 50 overs, build a platform for the lower order batsmen to capitalise! Yet we see India, Pakistan and now Bangladesh experimenting with various people as openers! Mohammad Ashraful is NOTan opener! Period!! He is a batsman who has concentration problems, temperament problems, and just when he was beginning to look a bit settled as a number 4 batsman.. these people send him at the top to open!!
I am not saying Bangladesh would have won the match if Ashraful batted at 4. But I am saying that maybe Bangladesh would have a chance of posting a defending total of 250 if they had solid openers and Ashraful coming in at 4. Becoz Bangladesh sorely missed him in the middle becoz both Saqib at 4 and Bashar at 5 could only manage ducks!!
I hope these dickheads realize their mistakes, and come up with proper strategies next time! But the problem is.. they never learn!!
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