ICC to review test Status of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe

[Hasib]

I was talking to this Zimbabwean and she was saying how the 2nd last polls were bad but the recent one was done properly.

[butchering lee]

i´m not against a second tier but i don´t think any good can come from the suspension of either.

i´d be interested to know the political influence on cricket in bangladesh - from the little i´ve learned while enjoying baglacricket.com there seems to be "lobbying" by influential parties to gain hold of what would be a lucrative business (judging by the crowds at the u19 games as well as the population of course). i just wonder if such things would affect the selection process, venues, development (geographically) of the game etc.

in terms of cricketing abilities - there is much to do - but there has been promise (well, i think it was andrew miller who wrote a piece on it on cricinfo) - not being turned over in 2 days in oz, the close sall against pakistan.... the recent series has shown that at least there are some with guts like javed omar and aftab ahmed as well as other unrelated +´s: rafique has been ineffective recently but has class and enamul haque jr. is a decent pretender, bashar we know can play a bit, the new kid on the block played as well as could be expected - y´know.

i´d give them the chance, personally.

* please excuse spelling mistakes - not my forté!!

[Rachael]

Is there any good reason why everyone always talks only of a "2nd tier"? Seems to me that compared with Waugh's Australia pretty well everyone (possibly not SA and India) was, over the past few years, unworthy of the top tier.. and right now it's not clear that anyone other than Australia, India and England deserve to be at the top table.

If there's going to be a change then surely the answer is not two tiers but 3-4-5. Anything less and you are stillleft with mis-matches like Pakistan vs. Australia and WI. vs. England.

[butchering lee]

i really don´t know but i think you need a possibility (if not, at least a hope) of winning a test, if not the series. with inzi, afridi, ahktar, yohana, khan, sami...you have it. even against oz/eng.

with lara, gayle, sarwan, chanders you have it (even over 5 days).

as far as i´m concerned you have a point: cricket was never as boring for me as the last 6/7 years of oz games and at the other end i´ve lost the hope (not the passion yet) when watching zim in the last year or so.

so to answer your question/suggestion: two tiers would suffice - and suspend oz

[Rachael]

So.. what would you make of a 2 year "ladder" with each side playing home and away....

Pool A: Australia, England, India

Pool B: South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand

Pool C: Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe

Pool D: Bangladesh, Kenya, Other.

Equally... a three year cycle like this:

Pool A: Australia, England, India, Sri Lanka

Pool B: South Africa, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe

Pool C: Bangladesh, Kenya, etc.

[butchering lee]

with one up one down objectives? i see that the ideas would be defendable (of the options i´d go for the first one but probably not if i was SAfrican or pakistani)

but the difference to me would be that i think on their day SA could take on the top teams whereas zim would not win a game in their group as things stand

[Rachael]

I'm sure there are many ways of organising a divisional structure that might work... but something along the lines I just outlined with 1-up and 1-down just seems more sensible than a 2-tier system.

I would hope that against the current Wi or Pak side your Zim lot would fancy their chances.. at least with the "exiles" back: with the Flower brothers, Goodwin, Streak and so on I would think Zimbabwe would be a good bet to win more than just the odd game.

[butchering lee]

we did play WI recently (at home AND with the exiles - goodwin ond A flower are no more) and we lost one drew one - though we played pretty well and the rain saved them a defeat imo. and were outclassed 2-nil. 5-nil by pakistan at our last meeting.


anyway - i wouldn´t mind any system where we´re not routinly hammered - where we´re allowed to get back on our feet and where we don´t have to blood "kids".

[Rachael]

A shake up of the Test system might well help.. but I suspect the salvation fo the game, long term, lies in club crcket: sooner or later the success of the champions league (and equivalents in rugby union, etc) is going to have to be acknowledged.. and someone's going to get around to sorting out a competition that creates a truly International 1st class game that means players from countries like the WI and Pak and Zim are faced with a decent chance of playing in teams that are top-table Test level or above.

Let's face it.. there's no reason why clubs have to be less strong than Test sides: get that structure right and the quality of Test sides will surely follow.

ps. can you imagine a cricketing equivalent of Real Madrid? All attacking, celebrity "galacticos" and no compromises anywhere: Sehwag, Hayden, Jayasuria, Gibbs, Afridi, Gilchrist, Flintoff, Harbhajan, Lee, Muralitharan, Akhtar. How I'd love to see them come unstuck :-)

[butchering lee]

you seem to know more about sport than i - if it works i´ll be happy as i´m out of ideas for zim cricket