Test cricket in Bangladesh

[neville cardus]

It's the absolute mustard, isn't it? I live for these low-scoring thrillers, and nowhere do we get them more regularly. A mixture of spin-friendly conditions and the proactive attitude of the home side -- especially its top order. I've watched every ball I can of the last three Tests in that country, and can't say I regard any of it as time wasted.

 

[Howe_zat]

What's weird is that this is so recent. Through 2015/16 Bangladesh collected a bunch of draws against Pakistan and South Africa at home and we called that progress. When England toured there 9 months ago I was expecting it to be hard yakka on slow, dead pitches and maybe something would happen on day 4/5. Then Mehedi Hasan started turning it square from ball one and suddenly the cat's gone and pigeons are everywhere.

 

[neville cardus]

Long may it continue. Contrary to popular belief, cricket is about wickets. Matches don't pivot on fours and sixes; dismissals move games forward. Which is why you can't take your eyes off this stuff. Something's happening all the time.

 

[Burner]

There's few things that I love in cricket more than the ball turning square from ball one. I am no one to say if it's fair or not but it entertains me like nothing else.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

It is great fun, much more fun to watch than a road like Adelaide or Lord's that does nothing till day 5 if it does anything at all.

 

[neville cardus]

People talk a lot about shortening this format by a day, but the Tests I've most enjoyed reading about are the three-dayers of the first four or five decades of their history. Apart from anything else, low-scoring Tests are far more likely to be close and dramatic than high-scoring ones.

 

[mr_mister]

Ahem, poorly timed thread considering what the windies just did

 

[neville cardus]

You consider the Windies to have won a "close and dramatic" Test Match?

 

[mr_mister]

Yes...


It came down to 6pm on day 5. A team won it's first game in England in 17 years chasing over 300 in the 4th dig

I'm not hating the sentiments of this thread just saying an equally exciting series is happening on the other side of the world

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yeah maybe there has been some boring 5 day Bat-athons but a lot of the greatest Test matches have been 5th day finishes. For that to be given up would suck.

 

[mr_mister]

Well todays proceedings helping your case Neville

Let's just agree test cricket is great

 

[Aritro]

That our groundsmen didn't begin preparing pitches like this years ago has long gnawed away at me. Although it has been good for confidence and exposure for our batsmen to compile big hundreds on dead pitches, and for our team to notch up a draw or two, I have no doubt that we could have embarked on the much more worthy endeavour of trying to win matches several years in advance had they done so.

 

[neville cardus]

There's also a correlation between the quality of the wicket and the fact that this game drew a crowd. Not a huge one, by any means, but the atmosphere they generated was wonderful. Contrast and compare this with what we get in the UAE or the Caribbean, where the surfaces are as lifeless as the stands.

Test cricket, if it chose to do so, could forge a completely distinct identity. As things stand, it's as much a run-fest as the other formats, the only material distinction being that it's a heckuva lot slower. Small wonder it's losing support.

 

[Howe_zat]

Nah, Bangladesh got massive crowds in to watch lifeless tracks for years.

The crowds are rubbish in Abu Dhabi because the fan base just isn't there.

 

[neville cardus]

Nah, Bangladesh got massive crowds in to watch lifeless tracks for years.

The crowds are rubbish in Abu Dhabi because the fan base just isn't there.

And the Caribbean, which was the other example I added? I should say, impishly, that I added it precisely because I anticipated this response. ;-)

 

[TheJediBrah]

And the Caribbean, which was the other example I added? I should say, impishly, that I added it precisely because I anticipated this response. ;-)

Well you can't exactly compare other places where Cricket is a minor sport indulged by a minority of people to the Subcontinent where it's a way of life. Of course they're going to have a bigger following.

 

[neville cardus]

Erm, cricket does have fairly deep roots in the Caribbean, you know. The book on our sport was written by a Trinidadian, and the West Indies played their first Test Match before any subcontinental nation.

https://www.google.co.za/search?q=c...rome..69i57.6296j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[TheJediBrah]

Erm, cricket does have fairly deep roots in the Caribbean, you know. The book on our sport was written by a Trinidadian, and the West Indies played their first Test Match before any subcontinental nation.

https://www.google.co.za/search?q=c...rome..69i57.6296j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

All good to know but doesn't really change the truth of what I said

 

[neville cardus]

You -- EDIT: or rather one of your co-thinkers -- described cricket in the Caribbean as "a minor sport indulged by a minority of people."

 

[Starfighter]

These days that could very well be the case. You people need to remember that it's not 1985 anymore. Things have changed in the Caribbean since then.