Groom And Grow

It is absolutely pointless to have teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh pitted against say, Australia, or for that matter, any of the other Test-playing teams. More than a decade has passed since Zimbabwe have been awarded the Test status, but apart from a few wins here and there, they have never looked like posing a real threat to their illustrious oppositions. Bangladesh, with their home series victory against a depleted Zimbabwean outfit, are finally, at long last, showing promising signs of improvement. But it would be still an understatement to say that they still have a long way to go. Even Sri Lanka took a long time to establish themselves as a cricketing force to reckon with. But their batting, with the likes of Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias, Sidath Wettimuny and Brendon Kuruppu, was always threatening. More importantly, the Sri Lankans played as a cohesive unit right from the word ‘go’. But especially the present Zimbabwean side is over-dependent on Tatenda Taibu, Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut, with none of the rookies except Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya, to some extent, showing potential to survive at the highest level. However, Bangladesh with a promising breed of youngsters like Aftab Ahmed, Enamul Haq, Mashrafe Mortaza, Nazmul Haq, Nafis Iqbal, among others, need to add the element of consistency to their play. As it is, they have shown maturity and tenacity to compete at the highest level, in their ODI series triumph over Zimbabwe, where they hit back strongly at the visitors, to win three consecutive matches after being 0 - 2 down.

Instead of stripping the ODI status from Kenya, they should be allowed to play more against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Perhaps the International Cricket Council should introduce a new tier for its Associate Members who manage to qualify for the World Cup or the Champions Trophy. Here they can improve and nurture their skills before they can be considered for awarding the Test status. Teams like Canada, Holland, Hong Kong, Namibia, Scotland, U.A.E. and U.S.A are not without potential. The first five-wicket haul in the 2003 World Cup came from a Canadian - Austin Codrington, the Dutchmen boast of two ODI tons, Namibia did scare England in their World Cup encounter, Scottish John Blain and Asim Butt were among the highest wicket-takers in the group league stage of the 1999 World Cup. And who can forget Salim Raza's(U.A.E.) and John Davison's(Canada) batting heroics in the 1996 and 2003 editions of the World Cup respectively. Kenya's dream run in the 2003 World Cup was a testimony to their immense talent.

But for such stray successes to be elevated to the level of consistency, these teams are to groomed properly, say, by making it mandatory for the Test-playing countries to send their second string teams to these countries on a regular basis. Actually India has been doing exactly the same with Kenya in recent years. Moreover, a Bangladesh side featured in India's domestic Duleep Tophy this season. Some of the Kenyans, Namibians and Zimbabweans feature in South African domestic tournament. Likewise, some English county teams recruit Dutch, Irish and Scottish players. In fact, Kenya's 2003 World Cup hero, Colins Obuya was recruited by an English county side. At the same time, the ICC must make it sure that more and more natives and not just the immigrants from Test-playing nations, feature in the Associate Members' national sides.