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| Edited By: Pranav Joshi |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Sep 29, 2017, 06:16 PM IST
Bangladesh, after defeating Zimbabwe in the second ODI at Chittagong on Sunday, achieved a milestone. The win was their 100th in international cricket - Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 internationals combined.
But this is only a statistic - certainly no cause for exultation. Bangladesh have been playing international cricket for 28 years, and regularly for the last 15. 100 wins in 28 years, with the enormous amount of cricket played especially in the 21st century so far - is a reflection of the team's overall poor standards. This can be broken down into just 7 Test wins in 88 matches, 82 ODI wins in 291 matches, and 11 Twenty20 wins in 41 games.
A team-wise performance analysis reveals an even more dismal picture. In ODIs, Bangladesh do not possess a positive win-loss record against any of the stronger sides. Their win-loss percentage is greater than 50% only against Zimbabwe (33 wins out of 61 games), Kenya (8 wins from 14 games), Ireland (5 wins from 7 games), Bermuda (2 wins in 2 games), Hong Kong (1 win in 1 game), and UAE (1 win in 1 game).
They do have some famous wins though. Their first ever giant-killing act came about in the 1999 World Cup against Pakistan, who would go on to be eventual finalists.
A brilliant second innings century by Mohammad Ashraful in Cardiff in 2005 saw Bangladesh beat then-World Champions Australia by 5 wickets.
Bangladesh also handed India a famous defeat in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, and then slayed South Africa in the tournament.
Nevertheless, the crux of their wins has come against Zimbabwe, a team almost universally accepted to be weaker than them. The giant-killing has been rare even though there is an impression that Bangladesh are dangerous in ODIs. Even in the 2011 World Cup, which took place in the subcontinent, Bangladesh only managed to beat one major side - England.
In Test cricket, the statistics make for even worse reading. For years and years, Bangladesh failed to even bat a whole day in Test cricket, suffering huge innings defeats in the process. The only decent team Bangladesh has won Test matches against is West Indies. Even so, they have won just two and lost 8 of the 12 Tests they have played against West Indies. The other country of course is Zimbabwe. Against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh are neck-and-neck, winning 5 and losing 6 Tests out of 14 played.
Bangladesh once came very close to winning a Test match against Pakistan - in Multan in 2003, Pakistan ended the 4th day needing 113 runs to win with just four wickets standing. However, captain Inzamam Ul-Haq ensured, with a gritty unbeaten 138, that Pakistan won by just one wicket.
Never before, and never again did Bangladesh even threaten to win a Test match against a major international side. They have lost seventy of their 88 Tests, indicating how poor the team is at holding fort and batting for long periods.
Bangladesh's best performance comes in the shortest form of the game, where they have won 11 Twenty20 internationals out of 41 played, losing 29 in the process. While still far below par, it is nevertheless not as ghastly as the team's performance in the Test arena.
Curiously, or perhaps expectedly to some, Bangladesh have played a lot of matches against Zimbabwe. They have played a total of 78 games against Zimbabwe - Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 cricket combined - and won 40 of them. Breaking this down, Bangladesh have won 5 out of 14 Tests against Zimbabwe, 33 out of 61 ODIs, and 2 out of 3 Twenty20 internationals.
Bangladesh's international record thus makes for far, far worse reading if Zimbabwe are taken out of the equation. In Tests, they have won just 2 of the remaining 74 and lost 64, a win percentage of (hold your breath) 3%. In ODIs, they win 49 out of 230, losing 177. When this further broken down into wins only against Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, West Indies, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the corresponding figure is 27 wins and 166 losses from 197 games - a win percentage of less than 15% or once every seven games. In Twenty20 Internationals, Bangladesh's performance minus Zimbabwe is 9 wins and 28 losses from 38 games.
There has been one, only one bright spot in Bangladesh's cricketing history. It was their 2-0 series win in the West Indies in 2009. But then, critics would argue, they played against a terribly weakened Caribbean side destroyed by contract disputes. Most county teams would have beaten that West Indies team hands down, and so did Bangladesh.
That and a single Test match win in Zimbabwe are Bangladesh's only Test successes outside their own country. Correspondingly, they have suffered 36 defeats. In ODIs they have been somewhat better, securing 23 victories in 100 games abroad.
Some of the blame for the continuing poor performance can be put on the fact that Bangladesh play Zimbabwe incredibly often, and even more so just before important international tournaments like the World Cup. The top teams prefer to play strong opposition at this time, so Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are relegated to facing each other in either country. This is true for the 2015 World Cup as well - Bangladesh are playing a few practice games in Australia - and this surely won't be against a full-strength Australian side. Apart from this, there is lack of clarity over a proposal to play in Zimbabwe and UAE before the 11th edition of the World Cup begins on February 14. In any case, none of this constitutes decent match practice for the biggest international cricket tournament.
The reasoning is simple - Since Bangladesh are poor performers and have been so forever, there is not much commercial interest in hosting or visiting the country. The most telling example of this is that though Bangladesh have played 28 ODIs and 7 Tests against India, they have never toured the cricketing powerhouse. All these matches have been played in Bangladesh.
Though newer generations of Bangladeshi cricketers seem to be getting progressively better, the pace of such development is slow, and there have been setbacks. For example, before Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe in 2 straight ODIs this month, they had not won a single ODI out of 12 played this year. The beleagured team will be very lucky to win a single game against a major side in the World Cup Down Under. Eloquent articles about Bangladesh's improving performances have been written ever since Mohammad Ashraful smashed 158 in a Test against India in 2004. But these essays now sound increasingly hollow as the team fails to progress substantially, year after year.
