Let's face it
The Verdict by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at Jaipur
October 11, 2006
The most entertaining story of the day didn't occur at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium but around half-an-hour's drive away at Jaipur's Neerja Modi School. A bunch of school kids, watching India's practice match against a Rajasthan President XI, were hushed up by their teachers after chanting, "Bring back Sourav, go back Chappell". Soon, after receiving a lesson or two, they changed tack and cheered, "Rahul, Rahul."
The audience at the West Indies-Bangladesh game weren't as adventurous. Considering the drabness of the contest, they were well entitled to bellow, "Bring back knock-outs, go back dead games" but around 7000 of them endured the lop-sidedness. They were neutral to a fault - cheering for sixes, wickets, catches, foolish strokes, and erratic deliveries. The soaked in the ambience of the first day-night match in Jaipur, and reveled in Chris Gayle's murderous assault that shunted Bangladesh out of the tournament. Brian Lara wanted a big win, they got one; Bangladesh wanted a contest, they will have to wait a couple of days longer when Zimbabwe come calling.
The lamentable part - as is usually the case with Bangladesh - is that they showed signs of creating a contest before unraveling spectacularly. The Aftab Ahmed - Shahriar Nafees partnership, when they not only added 85 at just under a run-a-ball, but also did so with large dollops of flamboyance, provided hope. Both exuded boyish audacity, both pulled off risky strokes, and both, most importantly, kept the good balls away. Aftab even had fortune on his side early on, when Marlon Samuels grassed a sitter at fine leg, but his dismissal, at a time when he should have actually knuckled down and consolidated, inevitably hurt Bangladesh.
At the risk of being too harsh on Aftab - he was after all only one of the two batsmen who made some sort of meaningful contribution - it was a reckless way to throw it all away. It's happened before, not only with him but with Ashraful and Habibul Bashar. A half-century is no doubt creditable but to repeatedly not convert starts can only be a bad thing. Ashraful has one century in 73 innings, Basher has none in 83 while Aftab has none in 40. Shahriar Nafees, who's managed one early in his career, and the younger crop must guard against this malady, one that's dogged Bangladesh since their elevation to the top flight.
Bashar admitted that it was a problem, and worse still didn't seem to have a solution in sight. "Aftab is someone who likes to play his natural game and we try not to stop that," he explained when asked about what he would tell him at the end of the game. "But we do need someone to make a big score. When someone gets set and scores 30 or 50, we need them to go on to a hundred. It's not everyday that you get a start and you need to make it count. Unfortunately Aftab has been consistent, but not getting the big ones."
It's a problem that many batsmen have had to confront, including the brutal Gayle, who marmalised Bangladesh's bowlers later in the day. Gayle had a word of advice for batsmen facing such a conversion block. "I'd tell them that once they're in the middle, you're used to the wicket and seeing every ball well. You'd know which bowler you're going to take your chances against, so those are the things you need to put together. You try not to face some bowler, try and stay at the other end. Having said that you need to also try and score off every ball."
The international schedule doesn't allow Bangladesh's international stars to play too many domestic games, something that will allow them to get used to the big scores, but it's a chicken-and-egg situation that needs to be solved. And soon. Bangladesh need games, absolutely no doubt, and it's important that they're part of such tournaments, gaining exposure and getting a feel of cricket in the big time. But if lessons learnt aren't going to be rectified, then, unfortunate as it may sound, there's no place for them among the elite. Just ask the school kids at Neerja Modi School.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is staff writer of Cricinfo
