When Zimbabwe return to the ICC Test rankings after Thursday's second
Test against Bangladesh, they will enter the table above their opponents
regardless of the result.
For Bangladesh, this is a damning
indictment on their lack of progress since they entered the Test arena
in November 2000, and raises further questions on why a nation of 150
million people has been unable to rise to the level of even the mediocre
Test teams.
To put Bangladesh's woes into context, it is worth
pointing out the state of the nation that thrashed them by 335 runs in
the first Test on Saturday.
Zimbabwe have just 75 professional
cricketers, most of whom are on part-time contracts, and only returned
to Test cricket in August 2011 after a six-year exile from the five-day
game.
The African side went into the current Test series
smarting from a dismal tour of the Caribbean, where they lost every
match against the West Indies, and dispirited after their latest
contract dispute with Zimbabwe Cricket, who are laden with debt.
Bangladesh,
on the other hand, enjoyed an encouraging tour of Sri Lanka where they
amassed their highest ever score in a Test, yet Saturday's result was a
reminder that for every step forward they have managed over the years
there seems to have been an equal step back.
While the Harare
Sports Club wicket had an even layer of green grass which ensured there
was always something in it for the pace bowlers, too often Bangladesh's
batsmen were impatient and contributed to their own demise as they were
bowled out for 134 and 147.
"We were expecting difficult
conditions and good bowling," captain Mushfiqur Rahim said afterwards,
yet he offered no real answers as to why his side were unable to counter
them.
The manner of defeat drew heavy criticism from everyone
back home, but coach Shane Jurgensen suggested before the series began
that what his side needs is a bit of sympathy if they are to handle the
regular beatings and move forward.
"It's a combination of a few
things: media, general public, high expectations," Jurgensen said.
"Everyone wants success, but what a lot of people forget sometimes is
that we want success as well.
"When we have a bad day, we don't
mean to. Some people forget the boys are human beings and they are all
very young and they have been learning."
Jurgensen also
suggested that many of Bangladesh's players should make the step up over
the coming years as they come into their prime.
"There's a
shift where you've got a group of guys hitting their mid-20s and some
slightly older guys who are still very young in cricketing age," he
said.
"That's when sometimes you hit the prime of your career - when your experience and your physical strength all come into one."
While
it is true that the majority of Bangladesh's team are yet to reach the
age at which most cricketers peak, the call for more time is one that
the cricket public has heard many times before.
Defeats by more
than an innings may have become scarcer over the past five years, yet
Bangladesh have still not won a Test since 2009 - and that was against a
West Indian side who had lost an entire team to a contract crisis.
Test
cricket is not healthy enough that it can cast teams aside without
concern for its own future, but at some stage Bangladesh's Test
cricketers need to start showing the sort of patience on the field that
their prolonged stagnation has demanded from a discouraged public.
New
Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum on Tuesday scrapped plans to
sue former skipper John Parker after receiving an apology over claims he
said attacked his integrity.
