After a long absence TNA pops up in the comments to remind everyone that Bangladesh secured their first ever test match win against England on Sunday. They came close to doing so in the first match of the series but – in depressingly familiar style – failed to capitalise on a strong position and win the match. But the second match of the series saw them see off the England attack in the second innings to leave the visitors with a target of 273 to win. England then raced to a commanding 100 for 0 before – in depressingly familiar style – collapsing to 164 all out.
Alistair cook is blaming “inexperience” for his side’s defeat, but I think this is grossly unfair. Bangladesh won that match by deploying a very, very good spin attack on a well-prepared pitch* against batsmen – Cook, Root, Stokes, Ali – who had plenty of experience but proved unable to deal with it. They also batted better, with opener Tamim Iqbal scoring a century in the first innings and their team posting the highest score of the match in the second.
I am not too disappointed by this: England needed some good preparation for their upcoming trip to India, and facing some top-quality spin bowling on an unfriendly pitch will do them no harm whatsoever. At least it’s allowed them to see that Gary Ballance is unbelievably crap.
So, well done Bangladesh on a thoroughly deserved victory.
(*I have no problem with Bangladesh preparing a spinning pitch. None at all.)
I’m glad you’ve left Australia; that kind of attitude with regards to pitch preparation is a key indicator that you wouldn’t fit in here.
I’ve suddenly stopped loudly asking the rhetorical question, “can we play the Ashes this year?” in the company of Australians, by the way.
Hey TNA, what happened to your blog? (My money’s on “got rumbled by co-workers”)
After 15 years of being mostly terrible, Bangladesh are now a decent side. That’s great, frankly. Look at this chart.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bangladeshi_Test_matches
I’m glad you’ve left Australia; that kind of attitude with regards to pitch preparation is a key indicator that you wouldn’t fit in here.
Oh yeah, don’t I know it. After we got steamrolled by Mitch Johnson & Co. on pitches which were fast and bouncy, many Australians were whining that, when they came to England last year and were getting skittled, that “it’s swinging too much” and “it’s not proper cricket”. Mainly because any sideways movement of more than an inch saw their batsmen unable to play having never seen such conditions back home.
The lesson might finally be sinking in, though. The debacle of the Australians’ 3-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka has caused tongues to start wagging over whether preparing fast and bouncy pitches in Australia which guarantees home victories is worth it if they’re going to get thumped every time they fly anywhere.
That’s great, frankly.
Absolutely.
Bangladesh have been a good one day side for a few years, and the reason their Test form hasn’t followed suit is because they have hardly played any test matches.
The presence of Balance in the squad is a mystery, let alone him playing. He doesn’t look as if he’ll get double figures in any innings he plays in. Baffling.
Hi Magical Dismembered Albino Finger ,
Didn’t get rumbled but I’ve just published a book on my profession and, frankly, if anyone linked the blog to me it would be, shall we say, totes awks.
But also, there was a lot of repetition occurring in the last year and I’d taken the citizenship bribe too so bagging Australians constantly was becoming somewhat hypocritical.
The Blogger Formerly Known as TNA
TNA,
Godspeed sir
and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest
@ Rob,
Bangladesh have been a good one day side for a few years, and the reason their Test form hasn’t followed suit is because they have hardly played any test matches.
Indeed. England did well to win the ODI series. Bangladesh really ought to play more test matches, I don’t know why they don’t.
The presence of Balance in the squad is a mystery, let alone him playing. He doesn’t look as if he’ll get double figures in any innings he plays in. Baffling.
That chip shot he played to get out in the second innings just sums him up. Shame, because when he first came into the squad he looked pretty solid.
Doctored test pitches aside, the Australian side is mostly dysfunctional due to the awful group think and management-speak that has infected those surrounding the players. There are far more hangers-on in the form of administrators and unneeded coaching staff than there are team members.
Loyalty to the captain and the baggy green have been replaced with worship of “key core values” that are “being implemented” while the side is “moving forwards” while “providing customers” with an “up to date product” that “benefits all vital stakeholders” and seeks to “resolve issues” while “committing to enhancing the game” and “taking it forwards into the 21st century while cultivating a dialogue between the members of the community of practice to advance the defining and redefining of a socially constructed cricket process.”
In other words, we’re fucked, mate.
Adam,
Indeed, that is an excellent summary. But I think something equally destructive preceded it:
Loyalty to the captain and the baggy green
Since the days of Allan Border there has been this myth in Australia that the success that followed was down to “having ticker” and shedding blood for the Baggy Green. I remember reading somewhere that Justin Langer supposedly slept with his Baggy Green – as if that meant anything. What got missed is that the individuals who contributed to Australia’s incredible success in that decade had spent years honing their skills and applying themselves in the toughest conditions. They didn’t rely on mythical properties of Baggy Green worship to do well, they got themselves over to England, joined county teams, and learned to play on swinging pitches in English conditions. Since then the players and supporters seem to believe their own bullshit that success will come just because they’ve turned up and can mouth off.
For all England’s failings as a cricket team, they at least seem to be prepared to put some serious work in to get better: that obliteration in 2013/4 Down Under was the best thing that happened to us in terms of killing off the hubris that was starting to develop.
Tim,
I think the two tie in together. The ill-preparation on the part of the Aussie players is because the young lads believe the management-speak indoctrination that is drilled into them from an early age. This nonsense masks the fact that the majority of those advising the players don’t actually know what they’re talking about so they mask their lack of knowledge with fancy sounding words and soundbites.
This goes far deeper than you might imagine. I know someone who has a lot of access to the inside of what goes on in cricket here. The stories he has related to me of abysmal coaching and career advice to young players are appalling. When the hollowness of their advice is revealed in a player struggling for form their manner of dealing with the problem is to inform the player who they themselves have mislead that they don’t have enough ticker and that they aren’t cut out for it.
I think you make an excellent point. A young Aussie cricketer today would do very well to ignore the idiots here and go off to England himself to get experience.
Adam,
Yes, I think you’ve nailed it there.
When the hollowness of their advice is revealed in a player struggling for form their manner of dealing with the problem is to inform the player who they themselves have mislead that they don’t have enough ticker and that they aren’t cut out for it.
England has tried the same with their soccer team for years: build them up by telling them they are the best in the world, then crucify them when they fail in a way which shows they lack the basic skills their opponents do. Look where that’s got them.
Bangladesh were admitted to international cricket to give the Asian bloc an extra vote on the ICC. This was part of a move in which the ICC (led by India) was trying to assert itself over the traditional arrangement in which Australia and England ran world cricket and the ICC more or less went along with what they did. One of the things the ICC tried to take control of was international scheduling, which had until then been done on a bilateral basis, and was one of many areas in which India felt it had long been getting a raw deal. An edict was made that every test country had to play every other test side home and away in series of at least two test matches every four years. This means that Bangladesh played far more tests when they were new to cricket than had any previous side. (In their first ten years in test cricket, Bangladesh played 68 test matches. In their first ten years, Sri Lanka played 38. In their first ten years, New Zealand played 14, although that was in an era of fewer matches in general). Whereas previous new test sides had played one off games from time to time against good opposition until it was clear that they were ready for more games, Bangladesh got thrown into the thick of things and were repeatedly thrashed.
This did’t help Bangladesh much – being repeatedly thrashed was demoralising – and it was resented by the stronger teams such as Australia and England, who saw such one sided matches as a heavily money losing waste of time. Eventually, India became so much richer than anyone else in cricket that they didn’t have any need to try to assert themselves through the ICC. (Playing matches against India is now so financially lucrative that other sides beg India to play them, and not the other way round). India, England, and Australia did a deal in which they would run cricket rather as it had been done before. Scheduling is back to being basically a bilateral thing, and I suspect the memory of being forced to play waste of time games against Bangladesh is still resented somewhat. Hence relatively few games have been played lately.
I doubt that this will be a problem now that Bangladesh are reasonably good and games are clearly no longer a waste of time. It may take a couple of years though. (Australia are scheduled a series in Australia against Bangladesh next August. They have found excuses to call recent series with Bangladesh off. I doubt they will this time, but we will see).
Thanks Michael, I didn’t know the background of Bangladesh’s test matches.