Bangladesh deal with cricket Australia

[draexem]

Dhaka - Bangladesh's cricket chiefs have signed a two-year deal with world champions Australia to help them raise the standard of the game in the South Asian nation, an official said on Wednesday.

Cricket Australia will train Bangladeshi coaches, prepare a coaching manual, set up an umpires' management system and train young players at Australian academies, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief executive Mahmudur Rahman said.

"It will be a huge boost to our cricket and we hope our cricket will reach a higher level because of Australian help," Rahman said, adding the BCB will pay Cricket Australia 427,500 dollars for its services.

Under a previous five-year agreement that expired in 2006, young Bangladeshi cricketers had trained under Australian coaches.

Local experts credit Australian coaching for Bangladesh's recent improvement on the international stage, including stunning wins over India and South Africa in the ongoing World Cup.

link: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=17&art_id=nw2007041108 3220201C146160

I hope Bangladesh keep getting better and better.

[Aussie-Yank]

I am very happy to see this development continue and hope it continues past the two years from now - a strengthing Bangladesh is only good for the game.

[Occasional Fan]

Indeed. Great news. Surely England can come up with $A475,000 and take advantage of the same deal?

More seriously, wouldn't it be wonderful if the richer test nations between them could come up with a few dollars to give poorer nations (Kenya? Maybe Zimbabwe, who will surely need it if they are ever to come up to their former standards again?) a similar opportunity?

[Richard Jenkins]

I completly agree. The more test level nations there are, the better the health of the game.
ECB should be pumping money into the scottish and irish games now and looking at the european scene instead of sitting around puffing their pipe and sewing leather patches to their cardigans.

[Karthik]

England have done a decent job in exposing Ireland and The Netherlands to test nations.Whenever a team has toured England,the ECB also sets up games against Ireland and The Netherlands as part of the itenary.

The Netherlands,who invariably qualifies for all the World Cup has failed to show any improvement like Ireland,Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

[Richard Jenkins]

The Netherlands don't invairably qualify for the World Cup.
They qualified this time, 2003,1996 , and nothing before that. So that makes three times since 1975.
Canada qualified early in the competitions history in 1979 and again this time.

You say that they have 'failed to show any improvement' but remember The Netherlands pay their cricket on a matting type surface for the most part. So it's not surprising they don't show any improvement.14 year old girls will knock your head off on that surface.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherl...l_cricket_team
They need a cash injection to make the infrastructure good enought for ODI's. This is slowly happening. Things like being excluded from the C and G trophy didn't help. they played v SL in 2006, when SL broke records, but when Bangladesh came in 2005 I don't think the Dutch or Irish played them. The irish played the WI in 2005, but the dutch didn't. They have official ODI status until 2009 and perhaps in that time they'll produce one professional cricketer. The rest are amateurs and pay their way/ask their boss for time off:etc
The Dutch tried to set up a cricket league in 2005 and you can read the results on crickinfo.

What it needs is a consitence approach were Scotland , Holland, Ireland and possibly Denmark get a ODI match v the Big boys touring England. Not the 'close your eyes and throw a dart approach' that the ECB shows. I suspect without pressure from icc none of it would happen anyway.
Instead we get the European tour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europea...p#Division_Two
which is a shambles.
The Netherlands may not be the best ODI outfit in the whole world and cricket may not be the top sport in that Country.
They have started to play more 4 day matches in the ICC intercontinental cup and beat Kenya to come second in group B
they were in a tough group in this world cup.
They need a lot more exposure to One day cricket to improve.