Reality bites at Bangladesh

It's just seventeen days until Bangladesh step out to play their first Test match. But as the momentous day approaches, it seems nothing is going right. Bangladesh just completed a demoralising three-game one-day series against a South African Invitational squad.

A short two-week tour of South Africa intended to give the Bangladesh team valuable match practice prior to their inaugural Test has ended up as something of a nightmare. The Test debutants suffered crushing defeats in back-to-back one-day games in the past two days.

On Sunday at Pietermaritzburg, the Bangladesh side were dismissed for 51, losing by ten wickets in a match which was all over before lunch. Last night at Kingsmead, Durban, they were bundled out for 57, losing by 202 runs.

Last week, Bangladesh were beaten, though not humiliated, by Griqualand West in the only first-class match of the tour, and their only multi-day game of competitive cricket as a team since January. On Wednesday, they went down by seven wickets to the SA Invitational team in the first of the three-match series.

With only two of the invitational squad having full international experience for South Africa - namely Dale Benkenstein and Nic Pothas - it was 25 yearold Boland seamer Charl Langeveldt who did the damage on Sunday, taking 5/7 in four overs as Bangladesh collapsed in 18.3 overs. Mark Bruyns (18*) and Graeme Smith (28*) scored the required runs without the loss of a wicket, and the game at Pietermaritzburg was all done in less than forty overs.

Yesterday's day-night encounter at Kingsmead lasted longer simply because the South Africans batted first, sent into bat by Naimur Rahman. The Invitation eleven made 259 for 5 in their fifty overs, with half-centuries to Smith (56), Ahmed Amla (68) and Martin van Jaarsveld (62). The Bangladesh bowling wwas by no means disgraced. Left-arm spinner Naimur Rahman, probably the best bowler on the tour, took 3/45 from nine overs, while Hasibul Hussain claimed 2/33 from eight overs.

The Bangladesh batting had no answer against the seam attack of Charl Willoughby and Mfuneko Ngam and slumped to 27 for 7 in the fourteenth over before reaching 57 after 27.2. Akram Khan batted for ninety minutes to remain 10 not out in an attempt to preserve some dignity in proceedings, but the support was not there. Ngam finished with 4/20 from eight overs and Willoughby 3/9 from his eight.

With no further competitive cricket until the historic opening day of the Test against India on November 10, the current slump could not have come at a worse time. A team that has never played so much as a single five-day match has been dismissed twice in two days in a total of 46 overs.

Nonetheless, the Bangladesh Cricket Board are already planning ahead to their next Test opponents after India. BCB secretary Syed Ashraful Haq is reported in today's "Independent" (Dhaka) as saying that plans are afoot for a two- Test series against Pakistan in January if India's tour of Pakistan is cancelled.

There will be a problem, however... Bangabandhu National Stadium, the venue for next month's game against India, will almost certainly be unavailable, as it will be heavily in use for football once that Test is over. Alternative venues, possibly the BKSP ground outside of Dhaka, or grounds at Rajshahi or Chittagong, may come into play.

The Bangladesh team are scheduled to enter a training camp at the BKSP ground when they return from South Africa this week, to begin their final preparations for their historic meeting with India. Judging from their performances over the past fortnight, they will need all the help they can get.