Opinion Zimbabwe & Bangladeshs failure,not that of Associates,is disappointing
A hundred countries may play cricket but it is still really only eight.
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We took eight days at the ICC World T20 to get to the eight teams we knew would play the next stage. We yearned for the established teams to squirm a bit,maybe even get embarrassed slightly; why,we wouldnt even have minded if one got knocked out because it would have meant the game had got richer more competitive. But apart from a tiny little period of play from the spirited Afghans against India,we yearned in vain. There is still no challenge to the established forces and that isnt great news for a global sport. A hundred countries may play cricket but it is still really only eight.
Of the four countries that made an early exit,two (Afghanistan and Ireland) need more cricket and two (Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) need to be challenged. I think the Irish have a point when they say they dont get enough cricket against better teams and it is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately because otherwise they will continue to lose players to England. Eoin Morgan has been lost,now Boyd Rankin has quit and at some point George Dockrell is going to think about whether he can fulfil his dreams in the limited opportunities he gets.
We saw too that in the limited cricket world they have seen,Afghanistan have made impressive strides. They deserve to be tested more at another level. They looked far from ready against England,and they will be against teams with pace and bounce,but they have shown the spirit and a couple of players have started to catch the eye.
But the problem before world cricket,outside the top eight,is not as much with Ireland or Afghanistan or Holland or anyone else seeking to break in but more with those that are already in but not looking the part. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh were terribly disappointing and I suspect for their own development,they need to be asked some hard questions. At least Zimbabwe can point to political and allied issues but Bangladesh cant. They have the funds,the facilities and the opportunities but not the results.
Like Indians and Pakistanis,Bangladeshis are great cricket lovers,they love watching cricket,they support it well and they deserve more from the team that is out playing for them. It is now twelve years since they played their first Test and their win/loss score is 3/63. Losing 63 out of 73 tests played,many at home,is a woeful record. They do a bit better in one day internationals with 72 wins to 188 losses but if you take the top eight cricket nations only their record plunges to 20/152. In their Test match batting averages only four players (>10 Tests) are over 30 (and two of those dont reach 31) and no one is close to 40. Only one of their bowlers averages in the vicinity of 30. It gets worse. Of the three slots left (batting average >30,bowling average around 30) one player,Shakib Al Hasan fills two.
At a similar stage in their development,Sri Lanka had a win/loss performance of 4/27 out of 55 Tests which wasnt great but was better. But,critically,they had already produced Dias,Mendis,Aravinda,Ranatunga,Mahanama,Jayasuriya,Gurusingha,Tillekaratne,Muralitharan and Vaas. The base had been laid and they were ready to move on. Bangladesh have Shakib and occasionally Tamim Iqbal,and really,thats it. I got the feeling here that everyone other than Shakib was batting two places higher than ideal. In good teams batsmen seem to be batting one position lower than where they are capable of playing. With Bangladesh it was the other way. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah at 4 and 5 suggested there arent batsmen to fill that role.
They flicker sometimes do Bangladesh,like they did at home during the Asia Cup when they beat India,Sri Lanka and almost beat Pakistan in the final. But their next world class player isnt yet in sight and I think it might benefit their cricket if they are challenged a bit more; if it is suggested to them that need to prove they are closer to the top eight than to the next four or else they might have to play more in the little league. A little threat might jolt them into looking at the system that produces cricketers and in being fairer to their many fans who so dutifully,and admirably,sustain the game there.
World cricket needs the top eight to be challenged more if the ICC events have to become more competitive. In two and a half years we will again have fourteen teams at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and you cannot have a competition that is waiting to begin halfway into its fixtures.
I must admit I had thought that T20 would make world events like this one more competitive. It didnt happen in Sri Lanka.
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