Project Tiger

[silentstriker]

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/wc20...ry/289073.html

The article paints a very rosy picture, but what do you think?

[LA ICE-E]

it will be somewhat like that...

[Jungle Jumbo]

Bhattachyra is a decent and reputable writer, so I wouldn't dismiss it as pure fantasy. There is a growing feeling that the administration is gradually sorting itself out and as seen in age group cricket, Bangladesh will be able to challenge the best in 10-15 years time.

He does however shy away from one big area that still needs improving: the domestic game. Matches are still either played on poor pitches or tiny grounds and the standard is low, very low at times. India have seen recently that neglecting the domestic scene and instead relying on age-group and representative cricket does not produce a solid squad. It now does seem that the facilities are improving - they used to be terrible, I remember England netting indoors in what was basically a warehouse. Now they have proper practice facilities, which won acclaim from the Australians last year.

[open365]

I still think it's a long and rocky road ahead for Bangladesh, but the stage they are at now is a whole new level compared to what they used to be at and it is very pleasing for the cricket world to see that articles on Bangladesh are no longer strainingly optomistic but generaly complementary ones.

Writers no longer have to focus on Bangladesh's justification of test status, now they treat them as a proper team that deserves respect.

[Richard]

The only thing to do is wait and see - there are obviously caveats in place.

I've always liked Rahul as a writer, very much so. It's interesting, though, that he talks about how cricket has grown in popularity... but not what it's grown from. That's something I've never been at all sure about - was cricket ever unpopular in Bangladesh? If so, why on Earth was that so?

[Pratters]

The only thing to do is wait and see - there are obviously caveats in place.

I've always liked Rahul as a writer, very much so. It's interesting, though, that he talks about how cricket has grown in popularity... but not what it's grown from. That's something I've never been at all sure about - was cricket ever unpopular in Bangladesh? If so, why on Earth was that so?

Bangladesh started out with huge support when they gained test status. However, the following decreased after repeated losses and cricket fans were being drawn to football. Now, Bangladesh cricket, where fan base is concerned, is huge again.

[Richard]

I was thinking more about the 1970s and early 1980s, TBH. We knew it was massive in the 1990s.

[Pratters]

I was thinking more about the 1970s and early 1980s, TBH. We knew it was massive in the 1990s.

Oh right.

[tigerPassion]

Bangladesh started out with huge support when they gained test status. However, the following decreased after repeated losses and cricket fans were being drawn to football. Now, Bangladesh cricket, where fan base is concerned, is huge again.

You are not right about that.

Since Bangladesh gained test status, cricket has always been the number one sports and football a distant second. Cricket's popularity didn't suffer cause of the repeated defeats. Infact every year more and more kids are starting to play cricket and also the number of school participating in the National School Championship is always increasing and now more than a thousand school take part in that meet.

As for Football, it has been going downhill for the last ten years with so sign of changing fortunes.

[tigerPassion]

It's interesting, though, that he talks about how cricket has grown in popularity... but not what it's grown from. That's something I've never been at all sure about - was cricket ever unpopular in Bangladesh? If so, why on Earth was that so?

After the British colonial peroid ended, Bangladesh were part of Pakistan will 1971. At that time cricket was the number one sport in West Pakistan (what is now called Pakistan) and football was more popular in East Pakistan(i.e. Bangladesh).

After East Pakistan separated from the rest of Pakistan in 1971 and became Bangladesh, the rulers of new Bangladesh banned cricket cause they thought cricket was a luxurious sport and a new poor country could not afford to play that. The Dhaka National Cricket Stadium (now the Bangabandhu Stadium) was also transformed into a football stadium.

But things started to change in mid to late 70s and organized cricket started again and MCC toured Bangladesh around 1978 for the first time. But football was always the number one sports for Bangladeshis and for important Dhaka Premier league matches the whole of Bangladesh used to come to a standstill. The Bangladesh football team was also better than the Indian and Pakistani teams and are also ranked higher than their big neighbours even now in the Fifa rankings though the standards have come down dramatically since cricket became popular.

Cricket became popular after Bangladesh won the 1997 ICC trophy and qualified for the World Cup for the first time. It took over football as the number one sport and things moved on quite nicely from then on. Note that before 1997, there was no cricket stadium, no longer version cricket just club cricket (which were played on grounds where football was played primarily).

I hope you get the picture now.

[Richard]

Really rather odd that Bangladesh were playing ODIs in the mid-1980s if there was virtually no interest.

Strange.

[tigerPassion]

Really rather odd that Bangladesh were playing ODIs in the mid-1980s if there was virtually no interest.

There was interest but nothing compared to football.

[Richard]

Yes, and it's that relative thing that confuses the issue. In Britain, football has always been hugely bigger than cricket. Yet cricket has rarely if ever lost it's popularity, even in the late 1980s when our cricket team lost just about everything going.

It seems to me that since cricket was un-banned in Bangladesh there's always been a healthy-ish following for it. From what you posted above, as I say - no-one had ever before managed to provide a remotely cogent explanation of the situation further back.

[Prince EWS]

Really rather odd that Bangladesh were playing ODIs in the mid-1980s if there was virtually no interest.

Strange.

Haha, you can't argue against the fact that playing ODIs raised the profile of the game by saying that the game already had a high profile and then proving that by saying they were playing ODIs!

Infinite loop alert!

[Richard]

You should know me by now - I have ways of turning most things to my advantage...

Seriously, though - I don't think playing ODIs will have raised the profile of Bangladesh, no - not if they're being thrashed every time. But, well... if there's no interest, why would anyone even invite them?