A to Z of Bangladesh Cricket

Official  Logo Of Bangladesh Cricket

The Bangladeshi cricket team, also known as "The Tigers", is a national Cricket team representing Bangladesh It is administered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Bangladesh is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status. It played its first Test match in 2000 (against India at Dhaka), becoming the tenth Test cricket playing nation.

Bangladesh's first official foray into international cricket came in the 1979 ICC Trophy in England, leaving the tournament with 2 wins and 2 defeats. Seven years later, on 31 March 1986, Bangladesh played in its first One Day International match against Pakistan in the 1986 Asia Cup. Cricket has gradually become very popular in urban areas of the country. Although football was the most popular game for a long time, cricket gained a momentum and soon surpassed football, especially after Bangladesh won the ICC Trophy in Malaysia in 1997. By winning the ICC trophy, the Tigers had qualified for the ICC Cricket World Cup for the first time, where they upset Pakistan, although they did not pass the group phase. In 1997, Bangladesh became a regular ICC member with the right to play one-day internationals. It attained the status of a Test playing country on 26 June 2000.

As of July 2009, Bangladesh have played in 61 Tests, winning only 3. Their first victory was against Zimbabwe and the other two against a West Indian team crippled by the exodus of its senior players. They have lost 52 of their matches, and 33 of these by an innings. Bangladesh's performance has led to repeated calls for them to lose their Test status.

History of Bangladesh Cricket

1999

Bangladesh beat Pakistan by 62 runs during the 1999 Cricket World Cup in the group match at Northampton. Bangladesh managed 223/9 from 50 overs. Pakistan could only manage 161 due to a few run-outs by wicketkeeper Khaled Masud and some tight bowling by Khaled Mahmud  who took 3/31 from 10 overs-was later judged man of the match. They did not qualify for the Super Six round after suffering defeats in most of their other matches. But that win over Pakistan, who were in the super six in that World Cup, helped Bangladesh to gain Test playing status one year later. There were allegations that the match was rigged.

2000

In 2000, Bangladesh made their debut Test appearance, hosting India in Dhaka. They lost by nine wickets.

2001

Bangladesh played eight Tests in 2001. They toured Zimbabwe in April and lost both Tests. They lost two one-off Tests to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both by an innings, before returning home for a two-Test series against Zimbabwe. In the first Test in Dhaka, they escaped with a draw after no play was possible on the final two days due to rain. They had been 213 runs behind in their second innings, with seven wickets in hand. After seven Tests, it was their first time the team had avoided defeat. Zimbabwe then won the second Test by an innings. Bangladesh then made their first Test tour of New Zealand, losing both Tests by an innings.

2002

Bangladesh played four series of two Tests each in 2002 against Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the West Indies. They lost all eight matches, six of these by an innings.

2003

In September, Bangladesh came very close to their first Test victory, when they lost to Pakistan by only one wicket. Also in the match, Alok Kapali had taken a hat-trick against the Pakistani batsmen.

2004

In December, Bangladesh defeated India in their 100th ODI, this being only the third time that they beat a Test playing nation.

2005

Early January, Bangladesh defeated Zimbabwe in their 35th Test, their first ever Test match victory. In the first Test of the series, Bangladesh defeated Zimbabwe by 226 runs in Chittagong Stadium. Bangladesh scored a huge total of 488 in their first innings. In reply, Zimbabwe were all out for only 312 for their first innings. Bangladesh declared in their second innings after scoring 204/9. Powered by a spirited spell from Enamul Haque Jr., who took 6/45, Bangladesh wrapped up Zimbabwe's innings for 154.

Bangladesh would have needed to get the fourth-highest fourth innings total to win in Test cricket history in the second Test of the series. They opted to play out the last four sessions playing conservatively and consequently secured a draw. This gave the team its first Test series win and triggered scenes of wild jubilation across the country. National coach Dav Whatmore was later quoted as saying that playing overly-aggressive cricket to try to win the Test would not have been a good idea.

Bangladesh also secured their first One Day International series win in the same tour. Despite losing the first two matches of the five-match series, they recovered to win the series 3-2.

On 18 June, Bangladesh scored an upset victory over Australia in a one-day international match in the NatWest Series.Australia scored 249/5 in 50 overs. In reply, Bangladesh reached 250 runs with four balls to spare. Mohammad Ashraful scored 100 runs off 101 balls, his first one-day century, while Aftab Ahmed hit a six in the first ball of the final over, and hit a single from the next ball to win the game by five wickets. This win was a triumph for a Bangladeshi team that had been criticised by Richie Benaud, Mike Gatting and others as incompetent and not good enough for Test or ODI cricket in the English media, just days before.

2006

The first home One-Day International series of 2006 began with some optimism for Bangladesh, who registered their first-ever win against Sri Lanka in the second ODI of the series. At the end of March, Bangladesh played four ODIs against Kenya, winning all four. Then in April, they came very close to beating Australia in a Test match, taking a first-innings lead of 158, and eventually losing by only three wickets after bowler Mashrafe Mortaza dropped what could possibly have been a catch to turn the match around. Habibul Bashar the Bangladesh captain, said of the catch "If [Mortaza] had taken it we could have seen a different situation, but I must say he tried hard and you all know that he is a whole-hearted cricketer". At the end of July, Bangladesh toured Zimbabwe as the ODI series favourites but lost by three games to two. However, in August, the team defeated Kenya in all three matches of a series and subsequently went on to whitewash Zimbabwe in an ODI series staged in Bangladesh. That year, Shahriar Naffes became the first Bangladeshi to score over a thousand runs (which included three centuries) in a calendar year while Mashrafe Mortaza became the leading wicket-taker in the world in ODIs staged in 2006.

Bangladesh Cricket Team After A Win

2007

Bangladesh prepared for the World Cup with three series wins, defeating Zimbabwe 5–0 at home and 3–1 in Zimbabwe. They then played a series of matches against non-Test playing nations, defeating Scotland 2-0 at home and winning a tri-series undefeated against Canada and Bermuda.

On 17 March, in their first match of the 2007 Cricket World, Cup Bangladesh stunned India, a former world cup champion, with a five wicket victory in Port Of Spain, Trinidad. On 21 March, though, they lost to Sri Lanka by 198 runs. However, on 25 March, Bangladesh recouped its loss by a 7 wicket win against Bermuda, advancing to the Super 8 Roundand cementing India's first-round elimination in the tournament. Bangladesh lost to Australia and New Zealand by big margins in the first two games of the Super 8 round. However, to prove that the win against India was no fluke, they pulled off an outstanding victory against South Africa by a convincing margin of 67 runs. Then they lost to England in a tense low-scoring game. The last two games were against Irelandand West Indies, both of which Bangladesh lost with the loss against Ireland causing a black spot in an otherwise remarkable tournament.

On 2 June, Habibul Bashar, who had previously resigned as ODI captain, though he stated that he would like to retain the Test captaincy, was replaced as captain by Mohammad Ashraful in all forms of the game. Mashrafe Mortaza was appointed vice-captain.

2008

Bangladesh started their year of 2008 by touring New Zealand. They finished their ODI matches in December 2007 and started to play their Test matches against New Zealand. Their 1st Test with New Zealand was at Dunedin on January 4–6, 2008. The result shows that they had bad start in 2008 because New Zealand won by 9 wickets. Bangladesh 137 and 254; New Zealand 357 and 39/1. In the second Test, New Zealand scored 393, whereas Bangladesh scored 143 and 133. The game took place at Wellington on January 12–14, 2008. Again, New Zealand won by an innings and 137 runs.

South Africa toured Bangladesh in early 2008 and won all their matches, winning the Tests 2–0 and the ODIs 3–0. Bangladesh then beat non-Test playing Ireland 3–0 in an ODI series.

On 9 October 2008, Bangladesh recorded its first ever victory over New Zealand in an ODI winning by seven wickets in Mirpur further reinstating their reputation of being so called "giant killers". What followed was a closely contesting two-match Test series won by New Zealand 1–0, where despite Shakib Al Hasan's 7/36, New Zealand scored the necessary 317 for victory in the first Test for the loss of 7 wickets. The second match was drawn due to rain.

In November, Bangladesh had a tour away to South Africa. They lost all their matches, in the only T20 match, 2–0 in the ODI series (with the third one being washed out due to rain) and 2–0 in the Test series. They only could become competitive in the Twenty20 and the first of the ODIs. Otherwise, glimpses of good performances were shown in an otherwise total disappointing tour.

In December, however, Bangladesh bounced back from the previous lacklustre performances by threatening to win the first Test match against Sri Lanka by chasing down the highest 4th innings of total of 513. Though they fell 107 runs short, their performances were praised but in the second match of the home series in January, Bangladesh fell to an innings defeat.

2009

The year started with the innings defeat in the 2nd Test match against Sri Lanka. Then Zimbabwe joined the hosts and the Lankan team for a tri-series tournament, which proved to be more evenly matched than was expected. In the first match, Zimbabwe defeated Bangladesh by an excellent performance but then fell to defeat by a huge margin by Sri Lanka leaving Bangladesh needing to win against the Lankans in the last match in order to go through to the finals to join the Lankans, and that also with a bonus point. The hosts managed to do that thanks to a sparkling performance from the current No. 1 ODI all-rounder in the world Sakib Al Hassan, Mashrafe Mortaza and the newcomer Rubel Hossain.

The final was one which manged to go down as one of the most entertaining matches ever in ODI cricket history. Sri Lanka bundled out the hosts for a mere 151 and were preparing for a straightforward win, only to be stunned by some deadly bowling performances from Mashrafe Mortaza and Nazmul Hossain which saw the Lankans to be reduced to a shocking 6/5, which was the lowest total for a team to lose five wickets at. Then Kumar Sangakkara appeared to take the game away from the hosts, but Sakib Al Hassan striked with two quick wickets reducing the Lankans to 114/8. And then just when the Bangladeshis were getting the sniff of their first major ODI series win, an unlikely and equally enthralling hitting display from the Sri Lankan legendary offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan snatched the victory away from the tearful hosts. Sakib Al Hassan was announced as the man of the tournament, which barely consolated the Bangladesh team which performed out of their skin only to let it slip at the end.

In March 2009, the Bangladesh government indefinitely postponed all sports tours of Bangladesh because it could not guarantee the safety of touring sportsmen in light of a Mutiny by members of the nation’s armed forces. This meant that  Pakistan’s tour of the country – which was scheduled to include five ODIs and two IT20s – was postponed. As yet the tour has not been rescheduled. In an attempt to prevent Bangladesh players choosing to play in the Indian Cricket League and risk a 10-year ban, the BCB raised the wages of its players by 30% in March 2009.

Sakib-al-Hasan : Captain of Bangladesh Team

After the World T20 championships in England, the selectors appointed Mashrafe Mortaza as the new captain of the team for the tour to the West Indies so that Ashraful could focus on his batting. The two Test series was played amidst controversy when a pay dispute between the West Indian players and the West Indies Cricket Board led a number of West Indian players boycotting the series, which forced the West Indies to select a number of inexperienced players as replacements. Bangladesh went on to win both of the Tests, wining the first Test by 95 runsand the second by four wickets. In the process they achieved their first ever overseas Test series victory. In the One Day International series which followed Bangladesh secured their first ever One Day International win against the West Indies at the 14th attempt. They finished the ODI series 3-0 against the weaken West Indies side, but lost the only Twenty20 match.

The future

Bangladesh team is returning to the dressing room at the Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka.

Bangladeshi former captain Habibul Bashar and former coach Dav Whatmore have said that they hope Bangladesh will become a serious cricketing contender by 2010. Cricket's enormous popularity with the Bangladeshi people has produced a mood of optimism that this ambition can be achieved. Bangladesh's U19 team, the stepping stone before the International Test scene, regularly performs well against established Test nation's U19 teams. In the recent 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup, Bangladesh were one of the favourites to win beforehand, but fell in the quarter finals to England U19.

Many have criticised Bangladesh's elevation to Test Status. The country's supporters counter this by pointing out that it took New Zealand, now a strong international side in both forms of the game, many years to win its first Test match. Possibly due to these doubts about Bangladesh's ability to compete at the highest level, Bangladesh will only get the opportunity to play 41 Tests through 2006–2012 (The least among full ICC members with the sole exception of Zimbabwe), according to the recently publicised ICC Future Tours Programme.

India, which strongly supported Bangladesh’s bid for Test status in 2001, is the only full member nation not to invite Bangladesh to play on its own soil, even though India is due to tour Bangladesh three times between 2006 and 2012. Bangladesh has yet to play a Test on Indian soil. Some have suggested that India, which will be one of the busiest cricketing nations during this period, did not schedule to play Bangladesh because of time conflicts and fear of player fatigue. However, this still strengthens the notion that Bangladesh is not on an even footing with other Test playing nations when it comes to securing regular international fixtures. For example, Bangladesh usually plays only two Tests in a Test series, while most other countries play three or more matches.