Poor cricket

Photo: AFP

Bangladesh got their last chance and utilised it nicely to get back some confidence ahead of the three-match one-day international series against Australia when they met Northern Territory Chief Minister's XI in a one-day match, which they won convincingly by a huge margin of 120 runs. Thanks to Mehrab Junior's unbeaten 132, Tamim's 52 and Ashraful's 80.
However disappointment and Tigers seem to be knotted together and the poor performance could be seen again when The Tigers lost the 4 match practice series against the kids of Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) as they lost three games and won only one. This time bowling of the Tigers had no answers against the Academy boys as they were taken apart by the AIS kids all around the ground and the batting also gradually lost its way.
Before the trip started in a write up dated 27.07.08 just a month back, I mentioned that the Bangladesh cricketers fail to concentrate on the game when the tour is three weeks old and this time it has been only two weeks of practice matches and it looks like this tour will also end in a similar fashion as far as the players' determination and concentration is concerned.
There is no point in repeating the failures again and again. However, I think that Bangladesh cricket pundits should sit down and discuss regarding the future of the high profile coach Siddons. Bangladesh failed to deliver as a team in ODIs after Siddons took over from the legendary Dav Whatmore. Siddons has no excuse as he took over the assignment after seeing Bangladesh perform at the highest level for four years under Dav Whatmore. It was anticipated that Siddons would be able to bring more discipline and confidence to the team.
As said before, we all know the results of the three- match ODI series against the Australians. But we have to see how the team and the individual players perform under the supervision of Siddons (who has been training the Tigers for a period of almost 8 months) remains.