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The Tigers

4 November 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By AFM Salimullah, On e-mail
4 November 2004, 18:00 PM
. PHOTO: AFP
Once again the Tigers have let down their numerous supporters. Though they started quite brilliantly by knocking off the 'Black Caps' for 224 runs, they finished in the most humiliating way. Looking back at their dismal performance I tend to believe that they don't need any opponent to outplay them. In fact they outplay themselves. When the bowlers and fielders do their job rather immaculately, their batsmen make sure that they do just the opposite and throw away their wickets in the most irresponsible way . On the day, though rarely, the batsmen do a good job, their bowlers and fielders flop most miserably. So if one part of the team performs, the other part makes no mistake in destroying the gains. So the Tigers are not fighting any opponents, in reality they are fighting themselves. The team must act as one unit before they can achieve anything. If part of the team continues to 'assist' the opponents their job becomes much easier. The Tigers have a serious psychological problem. Who can help and how long is it going to take?

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I have been reading all the comments about the Bangladesh team in the newspapers. Every one of these has been negative. Some explicitly bashed the individual players, the management, and the coach. While I admit that our performance as a team has much to be desired, I must say that the deluge of vitriol only manifests our short memory and impatience. I would like to refer all of you to Mark Richardson's recent article in BBC Sports. We would do well to heed his advice.

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Blaming Whatmore is going to help the least, especially when the team performance improved after he took over. In the bowling department Bangladesh has made large strides. It was once taken for granted that a team would score 300 against us. Moreover, we were hardly able to take all ten wickets in a Test match. When Bangladesh went to Sri Lanka batsmen were declaring their innings because the BD bowlers could not get them out. After Whatmore came in, we are consistently getting the opponents out. When it comes to batting, one-day batting has deteriorated. But we should not lose all hope. In Zimbabwe, we were pretty close to getting the series. In West Indies we came even closer to winning an ODI. Batting in Test matches, however, improved significantly, contrary to what a lot of people would like to believe. Bangladesh has stayed longer in the crease and scored more runs in the last one year than the previous years. In Pakistan we brought the home team down to its knees. Victory was taken away from our hands only by the superhuman effort of Inzamam. In the home series against England at the end of the 4th day Vaugn admitted that Bangladesh had the upper hand. And of course, Bangladesh declared in the second innings for the first time in the West Indies. They drew the match fare and square.

We should see the Test series against New Zealand as a hiccup. We should also note that Bashar did not play. Historically, he has scored a fifty or a hundred in every three innings he has played. Imagine West Indies without Lara. As Whatmore pointed out, the learning graph will have an occasional dip. Considering all these , we should not make frivolous comments about our cricket. This is our team and we should be always there to cheer them up. Especially, when they are going through hard times.

Sami Afzal Dhaka