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Minnows - live and let live
By S.R. Pathiravithana
Mr. Ritchie Benaud recently came out with a scathing attack on cricketing minnows-- Bangladesh and Zimbabwe while producing his column for the News of the World.

He said “After witnessing the two-and-bit day farce at Lord’s, I am convinced our game’s governing body-the ICC must make a firm decision and remove them from full time international cricket until their ability and structure warrant their re-inclusion”. This attack on these two full member countries was not the first. Even prior to this a string of past cricketers whenever they wanted to be counted came up with a similiar attack on these two teams who are the fledglings in the major league. At present they occupy the bottom of the ranking table along with Kenya (who is not even a full member) almost twelve points clear of Bangladesh who are perched on the bottom lid.

So what? Originally it was only England and Australia who played Test Cricket and the others were slowly drafted in one-by-one. However every country who were drafted into thebig league did not become world beaters overnight. At the same time England who taught the world the game of cricket is still to win any of the major cups on offer, though they tried very hard to win the mini-world cup held in England last year.

Coming back to the topic of Mr. Benaud, the irony was that hardly twenty-four hours after his statement, the mighty world champions Australia who were once described as the most professional outfit ever to tread the cricket field, fell down on a heap losing to Bangladesh by five wickets in their Nat-West tri-series opening game.

Not that Australia in a sudden collapse were shot out for a paltry total. In spite of losing their first three wickets rather cheaply, the World Champions went on to post quite a respectable total (249 for 5) which their bowlers had more than a chance to defend and wrest the initiative. Knowing what the Australians are capable of, no one with an iota of cricketing sense gave one pittance of a chance for Bangladesh to prove that they could topple the chart toppers. We do not know what went on in the minds of the Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar and that young prodigy Mohammed Ashraful at that time, but the manner in which they went on accumulating the required runs put the banishing words of those pundits to shame.

Against a bowling attack which comprised the likes of Glen McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowich these two from the back drops of the cricketing world batted with the authority that no other inform batsman in world would have done. The pair put a partnership that counted for one hundred and thirty runs and hadn’t skipper Bashar got run out for 47 the win may have come their way much earlier. Then young Ashraful who proved that he has class when he took a hundred against the Sri Lankan bowlers in a Test match in Sri Lanka once again reached those magical figures before he got out. In the next match when their bowlers let them down badly Ashraful proved that his talent was not a flash in the pan by attacking even the strong English attack for a magnificent 94 runs in just 52 balls.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Times the former national skipper and the present cricket committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunge said that he was against countries like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe being removed from the top rung because even Sri Lanka went through hard times at the initial stages. However after being the captain who lost the most number of games in world cricket he also became the captain who brought the world cup home after the shortest stay in the full member arena.

It is a well known fact that cricket is more of a mental game where you study the mental frame of each individual player and ascertain the likes and dislikes on the field and set your game accordingly. To develop into this level of mental toughness one has to be in the arena for some time and get accustomed think that one is better than his opponent and one can always beat him under any given circumstances. For Bangladesh they do have it in them. Cricket unlike any other sport in that country has become a passion like in the rest of the Indian sub-continent. Once this attitude is inculcated in the players the rest of the journey becomes only a time span.

All in all by the time this column reaches you the second Australia-Bangladesh confrontation will be over and the final outcome may be anyones guess. But, the fact is that the pundits who tend to think their countries came into the big league by birth right and the others should have no chance to improve themselves should learn to live and let live.

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