WHEN Sri Lanka steamrollered Bangladesh at the SSC ground recently, the question whether it was the right decision to admit the latter into the Test arena cropped up again.
The babes were given a thorough beating on a pitch that was a batsman's paradise, what with the great Muttiah Muralitharan himself able to do little in terms of purchase on the third day.
While it can be quite a difficult thing for the senior Test nations to motivate themselves to play against Bangladesh, it can be argued that unless the latter are exposed at this level their cricket will never improve.
Being a part of Pakistan's cricket scene before independence, Bangladesh have a cricketing culture and the enthusiasm for the game there is very high. It is my belief that their domestic cricket structure has to be revamped fully in order to produce quality players who can be expected to perform consistently at Test cricket.
I am told that a very concentrated programme is being carried out to strengthen cricket at the grassroots level and it will take a few years to develop. Until that happens, Bangladesh must be careful that their game does not lose credibility and need to put a programme in place to develop the skills of their top players by at least over fifty percent in the short term.
In one-day cricket they have shown that at times they can be competitive, but here again, with the introduction of the one bouncer per over, it will be a different ball game. They need to recognise this immediately and take effective action.
Like most players in the sub-continent the Bangladeshi cricketers have been brought up on slow, lifeless pitches where batsmen succeed with minimum technique. If emphasis to good technique is not paid at an early age, players get into bad habits. As soon as they are put to test on pitches which give the bowlers some assistance, they turn out to be miserable failures.
It was heartening to see teenager Mohammed Ashraful achieve the feat of scoring a hundred on debut. He performed this at the age of 17 years and 63 days (born July 7, 1984), surpassing Mushtaq Mohammed of Pakistan by 19 days as the youngest century maker and also upstaging Zimbabwean Hamilton Masakadza (17 years 354 days) as the youngest centurion on debut.
Ashraful displayed rare maturity and there was a hint of arrogance about his approach. This knock was face-saving for his team, although beaten by an innings inside three days, and produced a ray of hope for Bangladesh cricket.
It is vitally important for them to nurture players like Ashraful, who possess natural talent, by exposing them to stiff opposition at levels below International cricket and groom them quickly. Ashraful too has to do plenty more about his technique and it is up to the administrators to see that he gets all the possible assistance.
I was very surprised that the Bangladesh team did not play a few three-day games against Sri Lankan teams even after the tour. They certainly cannot expect the Sri Lankan Board to bear the costs of such an exercise but already being in the country they should have offered to meet the expenses and given their players the opportunity, which I am sure would have been invaluable to some of the younger cricketers.
I have been a strong advocate of promoting and developing 'A' cricket and sides like Bangladesh should look to tour countries like Australia and South Africa with their 'A' teams, including some of the younger National players, and play the premier clubs in these countries on conditions which are different.
These teams, accompanied by experienced specialist coaches, would provide the best training grounds. The Premier Clubs in Australia play their cricket very hard and there is no quarter asked or given.
It is my belief that even Sri Lanka and India should embark on similar programmes, as most of the younger players in these countries need to play much more on fast, bouncy pitches to tighten their technique.
There is no better platform than the Premier Clubs in Australia to pit them against and money spent on a programme like this should come under development.
World cricket is moving forward very fast and it is necessary for the countries lagging behind to resort to programmes which may not be the ones they have been accustomed to in the past to develop their cricket. Unorthodox methods would be required.
It should be remembered that the West Indies were at their best when almost all their cricketers were playing in the English County circuit. With that type of grounding and exposure, the West Indians reached great heights.
Let us see whether the administrators in our region too are innovative and come up with new ideas to lift their cricket, to be competitive under all conditions.
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