Bangladesh’s worst World Cup stats, questions to be asked!

Bangladesh won their first match in ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 on October 7th in Dharamshala. The team won the match, with a promising performance, against Afghanistan by six wickets. However, after achieving first match triumph, the team's luck has declined as they have suffered five back-to-back defeats. Now, they are at the brink of elimination from the tournament. In the ODI World Cup 2023, no other team has suffered more defeats than Bangladesh. They feature at the 9th position on the points table, with a mere two points from six matches.

The Bangladesh fans, who are regular attendees at almost every Bangladesh fixture worldwide, demonstrated their unwavering support by donning the national colours. They carry the team's mascot–Bengal Tiger– and chant 'Joy Bangla' demonstrating their true love for the team. However, at the end of the day, they got disappointed.    

Feud between star players

Bangladesh cricket is experiencing some internal conflicts. The team's skipper, Shakib Al Hasan, unexpectedly visited Dhaka instead of accompanying the team to Kolkata which has raised many questions. Shakib's own performance in the ongoing tournament is fairly poor. He has just scored mere 56 runs and six wickets to his name. 

Meanwhile, most teams were focused on fine-tuning their squads, the Bangladesh cricket team resolving the dispute between their two-star players - current Captain Shakib and former skipper Tamim Iqbal. Just before the Asia Cup, Tamim resigned from captaincy and even announced his retirement. However, he reversed his decision after the intervention by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. However, a back injury prevented Tamim from participating in the Asia Cup. Despite efforts by the Bangladesh Cricket Board to resolve the conflict, rumours of a feud between these two cricket icons dominated the headlines. Ultimately, this led to Tamim's non-selection in the team just days before the tournament commenced.

A former Bangladesh cricketer and captain, Aminul Islam discussed the decline of Bangladesh cricket. In a Facebook post, he wrote,

"This was inevitable. The main reason is the lack of honesty. The way domestic cricket has been criminalised in the last few years was just waiting for when the collapse was going to take place." 

He further discussed the division of the national team stars based on their categorical status. This basically emphasised that the five prominent including Mushfiqur, and Shakib emerged as distinct entities surpassing the collective strength of the entire team. He wrote,

"A team within a team. The Big Five versus the rest. From what can be ascertained from people's words, the rest of the players seem like second-class citizens. Everyone is running after individual stars, leaving the team aside. Can't find the Bangladesh team." 

The failure of the Bangladesh cricket team can be attributed to the lack of opportunities given to young players due to the dominance of senior players who are not performing up to expectations. In contrast, Afghanistan, despite being relatively new to World cricket, has successfully formed strong teams with talented young players.

Coaching stuff might change

The coaching set-up of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is expected to undergo significant alterations after the conclusion of the ongoing ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023. According to Cricbuzz,  BCB has no intention of extending the contracts of their pace bowling coach Allan Donald and spin bowling coach Rangana Herath, as well as their fielding coach Shane McDermott. Additionally, the team's analyst Shrinivas Chandrasekaran has expressed his desire to resign from his position following the tournament in India, citing personal reasons. Shrinivas, who became a part of the team in 2017, informed BCB officials that he is unable to continue due to extensive travel. However, the recently appointed head coach Chandika Hathurusingha and assistant coach Nick Pothas are not currently at risk of losing their positions.

'Worst World Cup performance'

In the post-match interview, the Bangladesh team's captain, Shakib Al Hasan said, “You can say that and I wouldn’t say otherwise". Here, he is referring to the team's performance in the World Cup.

"I don't have an answer as to why we played this way. We were sloppy in the field. We bowled brilliantly. We haven't batted the way we can bat throughout the tournament.” he further added

Former Indian Cricketer Aakash Chopra tweeted,

Bangladesh remains one of the most ‘underperforming’ teams in the cricket world. Period.

Admire the passion with which their fans follow the game…but the results are annoying pedestrian for a country that became a Test Playing nation two decades ago!!!

Unfortunately, Bangladesh has experienced a similar fate in ICC tournaments over the past few years. Before the event, there were high expectations from the players. However, these hopes were dashed once the action commenced. This time, the situation has been even more chaotic.

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