June 18, 2005. Andrew Symonds turns up to Australia’s pre-match warm-up in Cardiff smelling of alcohol. His boozy night has no place in a modern Australian cricket team. He’s told he won’t be taking the field and is subsequently suspended for two games.
Perhaps ‘Roy’ thought a night out wasn’t the end of the world considering the opponent was Bangladesh. After all, the Tigers had just been flogged to tune of 10-wickets by England to start the series.
Like a naughty school boy, Symonds had to watch from the dressing rooms, as his last minute replacement – Simon Katich – scored 36 not out off 23 balls to get Australia to 249.
With Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie opening the bowling Bangladesh struggled at barely two runs an over for the first 10. The World champions well in control against the ‘minnows’ who were 3 for 72 off 21 overs.
But 20-year-old Mohammad Ashraful defied his age to play what turned out to be a match-winning century. 100 off 101 balls against McGrath, Gillespie, Kasprowicz, and Hogg.
Aftab Ahmed made sure of the monumental upset with a shot which Bangladeshi fans will remember forever – hoiking Gillespie over deep mid-on for a huge six.
Almost 10-years on from that landmark moment in Bangladesh cricket, the Tigers will hope to roar again, this time in Australia’s backyard.
Unfortunately, the win in Cardiff hasn’t brought about a major revolution.
In a way not much has changed in a decade. Sure, the names are different – Michael Clarke and Mashrafe Mortaza the only players still going strong – but Bangladesh haven’t delivered their potential like Sri Lanka did in the 90s.
They lost a lot of experience including the talented, yet frustrating, Ashraful who was banned from the game after admitting to match fixing in the country’s Twenty20 league.
A lack of competitive cricket against the top sides also hasn’t helped when you consider Bangladesh has only played 19 matches against Australia, 14 against South Africa, but a whopping 64 against Zimbabwe.
A trivia poll would stump a lot of people on the last time Bangladesh toured Australia before the World Cup.
Like most struggling sports teams their consistency has been the big issue. They have beaten all the top nations in ODI cricket at least once, but against associates like Canada, Afghanistan, Ireland and Kenya they’ve had their share of disappointing losses.
A 4-0 ODI series win over New Zealand in 2011 was the team’s first against a full ICC member nation. But at the World Cup that year, part-hosted by Bangladesh, the side stumbled back to its dark days, bowled out for 58 against the West Indies, the lowest total at the tournament by the 10 Test teams. The Tigers also suffered their biggest ODI loss to South Africa at the tournament.
After three different Australian coaches since 2007, Bangladesh now have former Sri Lankan player Chandika Haturusinghe at the helm as well as former Zimbabwean captain Heath Streak as the bowling coach.
Recent results have been predictably up and down, but Bangladesh do have Shakib Al-Hasan, the best all-rounder in all formats of the game according to the ICC Rankings. He lived up to his reputation with 63 runs and two wickets against Afghanistan on Wednesday.
It will be up to captain Mortaza to inspire his troops. They’re already over the first hurdle, defeating Afghanistan as favourites. Now, if the rain holds off in Brisbane they have the chance to take it up to Australia as underdogs.
10-years ago it was an upset, if they win against Australia tomorrow it will be an arguably bigger upset. Whatever happens the team has to force the ICC, through consistency that it deserves to play the big boys. The long suffering Bangladeshi fans deserve it.
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