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| Wilted Co-hosts Bangladesh bowed out of cricket's 50-overs World Cup with a whimper. Embarrassing defeats, caused by abysmal batting displays against the West Indies and then South Africa cost them dear. England required a favour from South Africa to ensure their progress, but the Tigers did them a favour too. South Africa thrashed Bangladesh. The Tigers' skipper Shakib al-Hasan knew that expectations would be high. “As we are playing at home we have great expectations from our home supporters, but we have a realistic chance to go through to the second round if we played well and then we'll think about from there,” he told us exclusively. Al-Hasan is still learning the art of captaincy. He is in charge of a young team with exciting talents such as flamboyant opening batsman Tamim Iqbal. However, they failed to reach their objective, being the only co-host in this World Cup not to advance to the second stage. Unrealistic Expectations Expectations were high in the country, yet Bangladeshi cricket is used to being judged by unrealistic demands. Condemned as not being good enough during last year's mini-tour of England by several commentators a history lesson shows that when India, New Zealand and the West Indies gained Test Match status, they were awful on the biggest stage. It took several years for any of them to win their first series, let alone be competitive on the world stage. Sri Lanka was no different. Why is Bangladesh being judged so soon and by different standards? “Bangladesh has very poor resources really,” former Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) President John Barclay told us. “I’ve been there a couple of times prior to them coming on board as full members. These different areas, MCC has targeted and done their best through the affiliate and associate countries of ICC to go out there take small tours, give coaching and umpiring courses – coaching for youngsters, I’ve done lots of that and its been a large measure of success. Of course you could say what about follow up? How does all this lead on and the answer is 'I don’t really know exactly,' but the fact is that it does something. It is a little boost to morale. It makes a lot of difference all around the world.” Bangladesh has a comparatively small pool of talent to draw on and has to contend with grinding poverty in the midst of a global financial crisis. How can they be expected to become world-beaters overnight. They have disappointed in terms of the expectations – wilted under tremendous and unfair pressure on them. The home of their captain was stoned and the West Indies' bus attacked by mistake. Despite such pressure they defeated England and had a chance of reaching the quarter-finals until their last match. |
