Yesterday marked the 14th year in Test cricket for Bangladesh and the journey that began playing India on November 10, 2000 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium has seen both dark and bright sides along the way.
The game grew bigger in the country while some scintillating individual world records only boosted its popularity, but with just six wins after 14 years the questions that really haunt us are – have we done enough? Are we satisfied with the individual milestones and not worried about the team record?
Out of the 87 Tests Bangladesh featured in till date, the wins came in the three series wins – one against West Indies and two against Zimbabwe (including the ongoing series).
While it was only last week Bangladesh improved their Test rankings for the first time as they replaced Zimbabwe in the ninth spot after securing the ongoing series.
Bangladesh’s most successful Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim believes its the infrastructure of the domestic competitions that led to this situation.
“First-class in our country is not as strong compared to the other countries. Let it be in terms of the wickets we play on or the opponent,” said Mushfiq yesterday.
“We (national cricketers) hardly participates in the first-class tournament for international commitments.
So we don’t have pressure-filled matches. But if you look at the contests outside, some of the first-class teams even defeat national teams. So from that aspect, yes if our first-class wickets are a bit more pace-bowling friendly then at least the struggle that we face outside would minimise,” said the wicketkeeper-batsman.
However, the 26-year-old also believes Bangladesh produced few performers in the last couple years and the number is increasing with time which will have a positive impact in the near future.
Mushfiq was also clever to point that talking about these problems won’t improve the situation rather work needs to be done for the betterment.
“We shouldn’t think about these issues just for one day. I think everyone – as a player, as a team and those who are involved with these issues from the board are working a lot to develop the longer-format in Bangladesh but I feel that more commitment is required because ultimately this is about Bangladesh and Test cricket is such an issue that if you improve everyone will notice and this is the game that gives you the biggest respect,” he said.
