Scotland lose again

Scotland’s second ODI outside the UK ended in defeat. They won the toss and chose to field against Bangladesh, and the home team finished on 278-6. Scotland were dismissed for just 132, another failure while batting. Their top scorer was Fraser Watts, who made 29.

Scotland’s batting has not been good enough so far and they desperately need to improve before the World Cup.

Bangladesh win first ODI

Bangladesh started their tour of Kenya with a 6 wicket victory. After putting Kenya in, they dismissed them for 168, despite a middle order fightback from the Kenyans. Mohammad Ashraful led the way in the run chase with an unbeaten 67. A more complete report can be found at the Kenya Cricket Blog.

Result

Kenya innings: 168 all out
Bangladesh innings: 170/4 (Mohammad Ashraful 67 not out)

Bangladesh win by 6 wickets

Bangladesh win final ODI

Bangladesh have won the final ODI against Zimbabwe by 8 wickets. Zimbabwe batted first, and 75 from Hamilton Masakadza led them to 197, with Rajin Saleh taking 4/16 for the visitors. The Bangladesh innings was all about Shahriar Nafees, who scored a fine unbeaten 118 to secure the game for his side in the 45th over.

Zimbabwe win a series

What seemed unthinkable at the beginning of the year has now happened. Zimbabwe have won a ODI series against test playing opponents.

With one match to go, they are 3-1 up in the five match series against Bangladesh, after a 7 wicket win today.

Bangladesh screwed in FTP

Cricinfo are reporting that Bangladesh have been treated rather poorly by the ICCs new Future Tours Program.

Ignoring the World Cup, in the next 12 months they will play no tests, and just twelve ODIs. Ten of those ODIs are against Zimbabwe, one is against Bermuda, and the other is against Canada. An ODI series against Kenya is also in the pipeline.

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar has made his feelings clear:

“A lot of star players are complaining against too much cricket right at the moment but we are not in a position to join the party,” he told the Daily Star. “Rather the long break in Test cricket is a real concern for us. I think it is always good for an improving side like Bangladesh to play as much Test cricket as possible.

“It is really a frustrating situation for us because we have just gone around to showing our gradual improvement in this level. We were just grasping over the finer points of Test cricket which will definitely be hampered when we resume the campaign after a year.”

This really is ridiculous. Just when Bangladesh are starting to show some promise, they’re being thrown into a severly reduced program, and that too against the lower ranked nations in international cricket. As Habibul Bashar said, they will be hampered when they return.

The CEO of the Bangladesh Cricket Board has said they are trying to arrange at least one test series in the gap. I hope they do. Perhaps even a first class game or two against the Kenyans prior to their Zimbabwean tour would be beneficial.

The article also points out that Bangladesh will not be touring India over the next six years. Indeed, they are yet to tour India at all.

ICC announce hosts for World Cups and more

The ICC have announced hosts for a whole range of events going up to the 2019 World Cup, to be held in England (probably in Wales, Scotland and Ireland too).

The 2011 World Cup has gone to Asia, with the 2015 event being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The 2009 ICC Trophy will be played in the UAE, and the 2013 event in Scotland. The Netherlands also get a look in, and will host the 2010 World Cricket League Division One tournament.

Surprisingly, the ICC have decided to move the Under 19 World Cup to the associate countries. Malaysia will host the 2008 event, followed by Kenya in 2010, Canada in 2012, and the UAE in 2014.

I was quite surprised by this, as I thought the Twenty20 tournaments would have more of a chance of going to associate countries. Whatever your opinion of Twenty20, one can’t deny that it is probably the most marketable form of the game, and holding it in a country where cricket is not popular could do wonders for the sports popularity in that country. Instead, the first two tournaments will go to South Africa in 2007, and England in 2009, which I suppose is fair enough with those countries being early adopters of the format.

Asian full members agree World Cup bid

The Asian full members of the ICC (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) have agreed to bid for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

I wonder if the BCCIs current plan of pissing the ICC off as much as possible will help the bid at all?

Bangladesh look for series win

via BBC SPORT

Bangladesh are looking for a first ODI series win against a major opponent when they take on Sri Lanka tomorrow. Their only other ODI series win has come against Zimbabwe.

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar said:-

We used to concentrate on winning one match, now we are looking to the series

This is a good thing for Bangladesh, and hopefully they can win more series. Especially as Ricky Ponting doesn’t like them.

Ponting should keep his mouth shut

via Cricinfo - The Surfer

After Bangladesh’s win over Sri Lanka, Wasim Akram has chosen to speak out again, saying;

Ponting, you just keep your mouth shut and look back to what they did against you people in Cardiff last year and take a note of the latest one against Sri Lanka.

He’s talking about Pontings pathetic attitude towards the minnows of the game. Ponting thinks that they shouldn’t play in the world cup. He’s wrong of course, and it’s good to see a respected player like Wasim Akram saying so.