Friday, January 18, 2002 Some might say the modern professional game is a bastardisation of the noble English sport of cricket. They might also say that cricket's amateur days were the golden era, while the present is an inferno more hellish than even Dante could have imagined. They, and others, would happily throw Bangladesh's bunglers into hell's deepest pit for reducing cricket, lovely cricket, to slapstick. But those high priests of cricket's values miss the point. Amateurism is part of the evolutionary process, and the Bangla boys are evolving.

It has become rather easy to rubbish Bangladesh, yet there is something refreshing about their approach. Their batsmen play without humility — and are invariably humbled. Their bowlers run up in hope that is seldom fulfilled. Their fielders chase leather all day and never get close enough to sniff it. Their wicketkeeper squeals "catch it" at each aerial stroke, forgetting that his countrymen in the crowd are the only Bengali Tigers likely to be nearby when the ball lands. Their fans are silent for hour upon hour but explode each time their heroes take a rare wicket or hit a boundary. Their coach is famous for bowling underarm. And, most intriguingly, their doctors are gynaecologists.

Enjoy it while you can. Bangladesh can only get better, or worse, depending on how you look at it. There has always been something fascinating about perennial losers, especially faintly deluded ones — Eddie the Eagle was as much a national hero as Torvill and Dean. But eventually people stop seeing the funny side: that amateurish fumbling loses its charm.

Bangladesh's challenge is to preserve this unsullied passion while putting up more resistance. There is no shame in being the worst team in the world — almost everyone else has been too at some stage — but there is no pride in being the most irresponsible. This recklessness is most evident when Bangladesh bat: lovely strokes but scant concentration or discipline. Unless they start lingering beyond one session for an innings and three days for a match they will remain a laughing stock.

Bangladesh have played enough Tests for their rash approach not to be dismissed as inexperience. Coach and captain share the responsibility of ensuring that the team's attitude is tigerish. With the captain as green as the rest of his players, Trevor Chappell carries most of this burden.

Ten defeats plus one rain-affected draw in 11 Tests is a hellish record in itself. But the manner of those defeats suggests a deeper problem. Either Chappell has nothing worth saying to his players or his message is not getting through.

Some might say there is nothing you can do with these Bangla bunglers. Tell that to the Bangladeshis. Cricket allows their nation to compete proudly on the international stage — not much else does. Trevor Chappell should accept he has failed, pack his bags, and leave the Bangladeshis to a more competitive future.

Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore, brought up in Rotherham, is assistant editor of the British Medical Journal. His Asian View appears on Wisden.com every Friday.

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