After Bangladesh beat England in the 2nd ODI on Saturday, Bangladeshi fans made their feelings clear regarding criticism directed against their team. A popular sentiment seems to be that other nations took a long time to record their first wins and therefore Bangladesh are on the right track. Rafique, a blogger from Bangladesh has this to say:
"Don't forget that India took 20 years to win their first test match. Bangladesh have won 4-5 test matches in their first 10 years, not to mention ODI successes against every test playing nation on the planet. Any criticism against the tigers should be made after taking this into account".
Statistically, he's right. India won their first test match in 1952, 20 years after their first test in 1932. Dig a littler deeper though and a different picture emerges. India played just 7 tests between 1932-1936, and none at all between 1936-1946. When India eventually recorded their first win, in the summer of 1952, it was only their 25th attempt. Their first 24 tests resulted in 12 defeats and 12 draws. Not bad at all for a team completely new to international test cricket. It must also be remembered that in those early days, India played just three teams namely England, Australia & the West Indies. All three were very strong sides.
Bangladesh by contrast have played 68 matches in their first 10 years, winning just three. These three victories have come against an un-fancied Zimbabwe and two against a West Indies side missing its entire first team. It is also interesting to note that Bangladesh have managed to draw only 6 out of their 68 tests and have suffered a whopping 59 losses during this period.
Cricket will be the winner if Bangladesh were to go on and become a strong competitive side. The reality though, is that the destination is still far far away. Repeatedly stating myths and taking comfort from them, is still not going to make them true.
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