Friday, March 16, 2018

The rise of Bangladesh

After their back to back wins in Nidahas T20 Trophy against SL which eventuated the latter's exit, many are talking about the rise of Bangladeshi cricket. Most ppl think that it started with the tenure of Hathurusinghe. Although he was instrumental in the matter he wasn't everything.

If you want a turning point, you gotta go back to 2007 WC first round, India vs Bangladesh. See the scorecard. There are three names with 50+ scores. And those three names, youth at the time are the three colossal towers of their game in 11 years from there. India received an exit from WC after that game.

But that was only one fact. There are some other facts that Cricinfo won't report. The team management, cricket administration, school level upliftment, infrastructure development, etc. The secondary achievements like U19 dominance (most those noteworthy U19 players are now in national side), quality and effective first class (list A, T20 local included) and T20 franchise that is managed very well. Also most importantly the enthusiasm of a big nation that caused it all.

Bangladesh is a big nation, and their economy is capable of building a world-scale dominance like in India. Since the second big nation in cricket - Pakistan - has gone bonkers, they have the capacity of becoming the other cash cow after India.

There was once a time where rich nations dominated cricket whereas poor nations struggled not only in the game but also in everyday life. Finances of the game were only ripe in richer nations and players of poorer nations merely volunteered for prestige and privilege. Although the struggle of everyday life may remain somewhat the same, the poverty lines have moved inside the national borders. Of those poorer nations, some rose up above the richer nations purely for their collective purchasing power, being bigger consumers in total hence having more value in the money invested in sponsored activity such as cricket. Population instead of per capita GDP became more important. And today they throw ridiculous amounts of money into the game where the players of richer nations look more like volunteers playing for prestige and privilege. It won't be SL or West Indies ever because few millions of people mean nothing anyways. But India, Pakistan or Bangladesh have individual populations bigger or in the range of the sum of all the other smaller test nations.

I am not talking about Bangladesh winning next WC. I am talking about the center of gravity moving close to them like it did with India. Them handing out big sums to first world beggars who would tweet and facebook after each game to patch up the hurts that their Bangali sahibs got from them during the match, just like how Starc would do after Smith's actions hurt his franchise master Virat Kohli. I foresee a second India across its Bengali border.

Speaking of India, money came long before but the recent in-ground dominance of India also began in a game in 2007 WC, incidentally against Bangladesh. Yes, the defeat in that same game changed Indian think tanks a lot and we all know their response through the past 11 years after that humiliation.