Cricket: Bang out of order

Bangladesh's Mohammad Rafique. Picture / Reuters

By the time you read this Bangladesh would have once more been put through a ritual humiliation, this time at the hands of Australia.

It will be two matches to the bad in what is shaping as the most ridiculous cricket concept since the underarm - a tri-series involving the two most traditionally powerful nations in the world and the worst.

Their miserable tour of England - they were pulverised in the two tests - has reignited calls for the International Cricket Council to strip them of their test status.

Even the normally sedate wire agencies are editorialising when covering Bangladesh.

"His [Khaled Mahmud's] appearance marked the end of the game as a contest to be taken seriously," wrote Reuters following the first one-day international of the tri-series which England won by 10 wickets with 25.1 overs to spare.

"Mahmud, a medium-pacer who races in and then appears to bowl slower than he runs," Reuters continued mockingly.

Richie Benaud, the doyen of cricket broadcasters, has seen enough, labelling Bangladesh an "absolute shambles". He has urged the ICC to "make a firm and swift decision".

Shane Warne, never in danger of being labelled one of the game's great thinkers, had this to say in his column in the The Times newspaper.

"What I saw just confirmed my opinion of Bangladesh. To be brutally honest, they are not up to standard and should not be playing test cricket."

Michael Atherton called the cricket "demeaning", and while on tour in the subcontinent there last year, Herald on Sunday cricket columnists Chris Cairns and Mark Richardson both wrote scathingly of the standard of the cricket.

But are the luminaries being fair?

Bangla coach Dav Whatmore believes sending Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe, to play in a lower tier would solve nothing. "The potential that lies in Bangladesh is incredible," he said during the tour.

The Bangladeshis have been successful at under-19 level and local journalist Rabeed Imam believes this is what they should be judged on, not the current crop, none of whom grew up with any test aspirations.

"Asking them to shift their dreams to tackling the likes of Zimbabwe, Kenya and UAE in A-category matches is as good as killing off their cricketing ambitions for ever," he wrote in a recent column. "Bangladesh should be judged on potential and not by all the matches they have lost by an innings."

Most would agree that bangladesh and Zimbabwe are markedly different case studies. Any moves to expel Zimbabwe would be as much political as results based but how long can you wait for Bangladesh to start performing?

Perhaps the comparative struggles of New Zealand and Sri Lanka provide some indication, although it has to be remembered New Zealand had neither the relative comfort of ODIs to immerse themselves in. Nor 'soft' tests against fellow strugglers.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY