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Opinion
To say that we’re here again is something that is true. To say that I’m again unsurprised is also true.
T20 is not a format that the Australian hierarchy care about, or has really ever cared about. We win ODI World Cups for fun; even in a bad season, we’ll make finals.
We’re in contention for being the hardest nation to tour even when we’re at our lowest ebb, and you’re going to struggle to find a person who feels completely secure if we’re coming to visit.
We’re giant beaters, even when we’re not proper giants ourselves.
So, again, I feel myself compelled to give Bangladesh due respect, respect which has not been shown to them by both the Australian public and by Cricket Australia. Neither care about the performances of the Bangladeshi team; if they did, they’d be more willing to concede defeat.
We clearly do not care about this series. If we did, we would have gone there with a completely different squad, with a different attitude.
We would not be fielding sides that cannot play spin, in a nation that historically speaking has produced better spinners than they have pace bowlers.
We would not be failing to chase 131, and we would not be posting 121 to defend.
I suppose my question is this: who here, once seeing the squad we’re sending and the degree to which Australia as a whole seemingly do not care about this tour or respect the result – we aren’t even televising this – is really taking this seriously?
Finchy was one of the Aussie punters taking to Twitter to look for a stream of the first T20 against Bangladesh (Photo by Andy Kearns/Getty Images)
Is it the pundits, whose desire to get people to click is inhibiting their ability to discern a foregone conclusion?
Is it the fans who do not care outside World Cups or Test matches, and even in the latter case only when they’re at home?
Is it Cricket Australia, who are treating Bangladesh as if they were a poor unfavoured cousin?
Sure, they’re every chance to beat us; they’re two games up in a five-game series, but who’s truly saying we gave this our best shot?
Why on Earth are we ignoring the biting questions here?
The following are the points of criticism that should be addressed:
• Why are Cricket Australia virtually ignoring any tours that are not against India or England?
• Why are Australian techniques to combat spin so basic that Bangladesh and the West Indies can expose them the very second we remove our top bats?
• What was the point of this tour and the tour of the West Indies?
• Who are the people in development at Cricket Australia, and why is any squad assembled from the best of the Big Bash League so far from able to compete internationally?
That the argument isn’t going in this direction suggests that the media is both lazy and – frankly – a little lacking in actual analysis.
Why are we so entitled to victory in this country? Why are we so unable to accept the fact that sometimes an opponent is simply better, based on the squad selected and the conditions at hand?
It’s preventing us from being capable in India, England, and recently Sri Lanka and Pakistan (or the UAE).
It’s prevented us from realising just how poor we’ve been to spin for the last 15 years. It’s prevented us from giving the West Indies their due, and it’s preventing us from giving the Bangladesh team appropriate credit.
Only when you acknowledge your own short comings can you seek to improve. We are the fool who believes that they are perfect, and thus locked into stagnancy.
This needs to change.
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