Bangladesh’s Historic Win Could Be a Turning Point for Test Cricket

 

 

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 As Nathan Lyon looked questioningly at the umpire to check if he was really being given out lbw, Bangladesh had already started to celebrate bowling the hosts out a second time and setting themselves a paltry victory target. It will rank as their greatest-ever moment in cricket, and very justly so. Beating Australia in a Test match in Australia was not something even the most optimistic Bangladesh supporter would have imagined possible. Strange things happen in cricket, and this is indeed one such moment, with serious repercussions for the sport going forward.

Test cricket, it need not be repeated, is fighting its own battle. Except in Australia and England, crowds have steadily dwindled across the world, with Test matches being played in front of empty stadiums fast becoming an accepted norm. In such a situation, Bangladesh winning against Australia could be the best thing that has happened to cricket’s most coveted format.

Bangladesh is a huge cricket market, with serious fan passion, and if the Tigers start to compete against the big three – England, Australia and India – the passion and fan base for Test cricket are bound to grow.

For cricket at large, this is a welcome development. In the absence of newer markets in India, South Africa, New Zealand and elsewhere, Bangladesh could come as a salve for the game. It is an untapped domain as far as red-ball cricket is concerned, one that isn’t short of fans or sponsors. With newer icons such as Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Tanzid Hasan and Hasan Mahmud emerging on the horizon, sponsors too are expected to find fresh opportunities for investment.

For the record, it is only natural that Bangladesh should make the big league sooner rather than later. With a cricket tradition stretching back more than 150 years, they should have played Test cricket far earlier than they eventually did in 2000.

The earliest mention of competitive native cricket in what is now Bangladesh is of a match played in Dhaka between the Europeans and the Natives in 1876. While the former had 11 players in their ranks, the latter had 16. Reports are also available of a match played later that year between the English and the natives. In this encounter, spectators were present in significant numbers and did their best to cheer the local team. A report published in the Bengal Times, Dhaka, described the encounter thus:

“The place was densely crowded by native spectators who caused great annoyance to the players while the game was going on, by shouting and clapping at any mishap of the opposite party in a most rude and unbecoming way, while they rather too vociferously applauded any piece of good luck that attended their own countrymen. But what was even worse, they often managed to obstruct the ball from going as far as it would have done, had it not been stopped on its way by a number of noisy natives.”

The future, it can be conjectured, can only be better for cricket in Bangladesh. Youngsters have started to make the breakthrough and the bench strength, which was a problem in the past, is no longer an issue. With this win, the Tigers will believe they can beat any team, and that is perhaps the biggest takeaway.

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