Bangladesh stamps its rise on world cricket

England is a known power in the cricketing world. Bangladesh, for the most part of its 16 years since attaining Test status, has struggled to keep its nose above water, sometimes to the condescending stare of cricket gurus.

It is just over the last two to three years that they had trounced on the home ground powerful Indian, Pakistani and South African sides. Now another feather has been added to Bangladesh's cap. After 11 months of not having played any international cricket and 15 months of absence from Test cricket, in September-October of the current year they have fought on an equal footing with a serious English side headed to India for a challenging series.

With India in the foreground, you get another measure to evaluate on a tripartite scale the cricketing prowess of two sub-continental countries versus England. This is the beauty of successive cricketing clashes, Test matches in particular, that we should be having by way value addition to world cricket.

Moeen Ali's 50-50 theory on relative strength between the English and Bangladesh sides resonates with you in view of the matching collapses and gritty rebuilding phases accounted for by the two sides. But Captain Alistair Cooke must have the final word; he rued the lack of 'world class spin' in England team. "The baby tiger of a spin genius Mehedi destroyed England", wrote The Telegraph in its Sport/Cricket section.

The Dhaka match marks among the 11 worst English Test batting collapses, and they (Bangladeshis) felt "They should have won the series 2-0."

Even though The Telegraph headlined "Cook's side collapse to humiliating defeat", the text made a very valid, and for us, an inspiring point: "Mehedi's emergence and his team's new-found self-belief means that losing a Test in Bangladesh is no longer a humiliation it used to be."

So it was recommended in the report – "With talented young cricketers such as Mehedi and Sabbir it would be such a shame if other countries did not follow England's lead and tour Bangladesh. . ."

The media went so far as to emphatically remark, "Forget the security and terrorist threat. The England tour has been a triumph for cricket."

The Guardian was equally gracious in its comments: "After two stunning games in Bangladesh, England has no idea what constitutes the best X1 in this part of the world."

And this reads so poignant a portrayal of the English mood as far it could get: "Steve Finn, the dismissed batsman stood there wondering why his request to review was being ignored — there was no review left. This somehow epitomised a session in which England went from helplessness to helplessness in record time."

Indeed, Bangladesh proclaimed that it "was open for business and ready to take on the world after the England win."

But there is a reality check we need to be mindful about so that our progress can be well-rounded and sustained beyond the home ground — on overseas wickets. English commentator and veteran cricketer Michael Atherton, reacting to the batting collapse in England's second innings — 10 wickets falling in 23.3 overs to score a paltry 64 runs —complained of what he termed "a tailor-made wicket."

Of course, as the English chase progressed, it became more of a turning wicket from which the spinners could extract some purchase. But it is worthwhile to note that English pacer Ben Stokes took 11 wickets as compared with a lacklustre showing by English spinners. And, that made the difference, a point which was not lost on the English skipper Alistair Cooke as he regretted having been outplayed by Bangladesh spinners.

Cook made a point about the condition of the wicket more diplomatically than did Michael Atherton. Since the condition applied to both sides, Cook said something about the Bangladesh team making bold to win, asking why wouldn't they - on a turning wicket? But the fact remains that we would have to play on bouncy or placid wicket overseas, which the English captain reminded us of quite relevantly, one would have thought. Yet our bowling side is potentially powerful with prodigies like Mehedi and Mustafiz. The wide-ranging choices to play with are a valuable add-on to our cricketing strength.

Exceptionally, there was a surfeit of reviews of umpiring decisions under DRS — Decision Review System. For instance, Sri Lankan umpire Dharmasena, who is being assigned to umpire the forthcoming India-England series, faced 27 requests for reviews of his decisions, of which 13 were overturned. A concern has been voiced over whether the liberal use of DRS is not going to compromise the authority of umpires. If it really comes to undermining human judgement, why not use robots then? Reviews perhaps should themselves be reviewed!

England is just not the historic home of cricket; she is also a champion of the Gentleman's Game, some specimens of which we have witnessed during the matches. On October 24, Sabbir Rahman sat down, hunched back in frustration over his unbeaten 64 going down the drain. Joe Root was seen coming forward and squatting in front him to console him. During the second Test match on October 28, three very moving pictures turned out to be perfect metaphors of the spirit of sportsmanship, unblemished by isolated incidents of verbal exchanges, not uncommon in a competitive game.

Two news pictures showed English fielders attending to Bangladesh captain Mushfique lying down after being hit by the pacer Ben Stoke's bouncer. Both Bangladesh and England's physios had rushed to treat the Bangladesh captain to his feet.

The last picture of warmth shows the English captain crouching to tie up the loose shoe lace of batsman Mehedi Hassan Miraj, in an amazing display of courtesy coming straight out of the heart! Bravo, English skipper!

It is now for us to live up to and extend on the new-found and well-deserved cricketing glory as an undimmed badge of national honour.

The writer is a contributor of The Daily Star.

Email: shahhusainimam@gmail.com