When international T20 matches in men’s cricket first started in 2005, it was mostly an afterthought. I didn’t care much for it and it seemed neither did the players.
I still don’t care much for it despite it having become (unfortunately) the most popular format of the game.
I thought, and still think, that 20 overs is too little a time for a cricket team to showcase what makes cricket wonderful. I continue to feel that overall skill and cricketing minds take a backseat.
All of which is why it felt perfect for a country like Bangladesh. Back in 2005, the team was about as bad as it could get in terms of playing cricket.
Fast forward to 2022. Since the end of August, not taking into account the matches with UAE, the Tigers have lost their last seven T20 games.
The latest, on October 17, was the worst of the lot. Bangladesh lost. To Afghanistan. By a whopping 62 runs.
Sixty two runs.
In a T20 game for crying out loud! Against an opponent just about every Bangladeshi cricket fan (and no doubt the players themselves) think as inferior.
Seventeen years on, it seems not much has changed.
I have written previously on the Tigers’ woeful performances in Test cricket and my scepticism has proven to be true time and time again. But T20 was supposed to be different. You didn’t need the patience and skills of Test cricket.
You needed bravado and attitude and a hint of crazy. You’d have thought Bangladesh would have been able to produce a bit of that at least.
For a country that’s been playing cricket for a while now, for this team to continue to be outright bad at a format that seemed built for it, with all the money the players make and the board makes and the facilities at their disposal now -- it simply is not good enough.
And of course, beyond the issues that plague the team, I remain perplexed at the attitude displayed -- not just by the players themselves but also by the fans.
Since when did Bangladesh cricket earn the right to underestimate opponents?
Perhaps most comical is the all-too-common thought that any nation, let alone India who often get brought up, were “afraid” to face Bangladesh.
The delusion at this point is no longer even laughable. It’s simply tragic.
And what remains even more tragic for Bangladesh cricket is that it always seems to take one step forward and two steps back.
Couple that with the terrible combination of complacency and smugness, and it is no wonder that this team has never been anything more than a flash in the pan.
Bangladesh cricket fans too can be insufferable in their own right. Perhaps the people need to realize that this team is not and has never really been that great.
Perhaps the fandom gets to the players’ heads -- the adulation and hero-worshipping they receive simply does not (and never has) matched their achievements on the field.
And yet, despite the delusion of the fans and all the intangibles, those who matter -- the players, the board, and all relevant stakeholders -- should know better.
This team should have been better by now.
The T20 World Cup is upon us, and Bangladesh could not have been worse prepared for it even if it tried to conjure the most terrible of nightmares.
Will they turn it around during the actual tournament and surprise the nation? I’m certainly not putting my money on them.
I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, but it’s a shame that I seldom am.
AHM Mustafizur Rahman is Joint Editor, Editorial and Op-Ed, at the Dhaka Tribune.