Bangladesh suffered a clean sweep in their two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, courtesy of their disappointing display of batting as they failed to reach 200 in the first three innings, and when they finally did, it was to no avail as they still lost comprehensively.
While poor technique from the batters was in focus throughout the series, the final two days of the series exposed the fragile domestic structure of Bangladesh 鈥� probably the biggest thorn on their path to progress in the red-ball format 鈥� as two key players 鈥� Mominul Haque and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto 鈥� spoke without sugarcoating the matter.
鈥業t will feel bad to hear, but the difference between our domestic cricket and international cricket is night and day. I know that. Everyone knows that. This is not an excuse,鈥� said Mominul.
鈥業 play in the National Cricket League. I don鈥檛 have to face any challenges there, but I have to here [in international cricket]. Maybe I鈥檓 drifting off topic, but I鈥檓 saying it from an honest perspective.鈥�
Shanto, after the second Test ended, spoke in a similar tone. 鈥業f the wickets in our first-class cricket are a bit better and if we can face the challenges of the conditions we play in, then it will be better. The kind of challenges we face in international cricket, I don鈥檛 think we play matches of such quality in domestic cricket,鈥� he said on Wednesday.
Bangladesh鈥檚 domestic circuit, except for its quality, also has the problem of a scarcity of matches and the timing of it.
The National Cricket League 鈥� an eight-team tournament 鈥� is split into two tiers of four and is played in a double round-robin format, meaning teams only have six games a season.
In the Bangladesh Cricket League 鈥� a four-team tournament 鈥� a team can play four at most if they qualify for the final. This means a player can only play 10 four-day matches 鈥� at most 鈥� a year.
Both of these tournaments are played at the back end of the year, with the NCL starting around October-November, and the BCL following it. In recent years, though, national team players have rarely played all games due to international commitments.
Zakir Hasan played six matches in last year鈥檚 NCL, while Mominul played five. Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Shahadat Hossain Dipu played two each, while Shanto played once.
Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, and Mushfiqur Rahim could not play as they were busy with the ODI World Cup, while Shanto played one after the tournament.
Often, these domestic tournaments clash with international scheduling, meaning all-format players do not have the chance to participate in them.
Bangladesh 鈥楢鈥� and High-Performance teams, considered to be the pipeline for the national team, haven鈥檛 had games in the recent past as well.
Since the start of 2022, Bangladesh 鈥楢鈥� have played just seven four-day games, and only two of them were away from home to prepare the players for an upcoming series.
In 2021, the Bangladesh Cricket Board launched the Bangladesh Tigers programme, which was supposed to be a subsidiary of the national team, to keep the players ready if issues arise.
It has been almost three years since, but the Bangladesh Tigers have yet to take the field in an official game.
Shanto raised this issue as well, suggesting a solution through the A team.
鈥榃hat seems to be the most effective to me is that before we go to play an overseas series, the A team goes there. Then if players who only play Tests can play a few matches, then the preparation will be good,鈥� he said.
Whether BCB takes the advice from their all-format captain will be the issue, as there are two Test series 鈥� against South Africa at home and the West Indies away 鈥� still left to be played this year.
