Rex Clementine at Pallekele

When Bangladesh came down to Colombo to play their maiden Test match in 2001, it turned  out to be a one-sided game with Sri Lanka winning by an innings and 137 runs inside three days. Captain Sanath Jayasuriya threw caution to the wind smashing 89 off 56 deliveries with 11 fours and four sixes. The entire Bangladesh team managed one more run than Jayasuriya in their first innings – 90 all out.

Twenty years on, they have come a long way. In the ongoing Pallekele Test, they declared after posting 541, the highest total ever at this ground. They are playing without two of their leading stars – Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, both of whom are at IPL. Four years ago, when they were at full strength, they beat Sri Lanka.

There was a time in the early days when Sri Lanka realized that Bangladesh could not match their strength and  rested half of the team. There was a storm of protest from the senior players. But Guy de Alwis, bless him, a tough man, who was firm with his decision, insisted on bringing in young players against a weak opposition. He was the Chairman of Selectors. He had it his way. Today, while we are at full strength, Bangladesh are without their leading stars. How times have changed.

To put their cricket right, Bangladesh invested heavily on Sri Lankan talent. Many were picked for coaching roles. Carlton Bernadus, Champaka Ramanayake, Ruwan Kalpage and Chandika Hathurusinghe. Sri Lankans were sought after by Bangladesh beyond coaching too. They hired curators like Gamini Silva and trainers such as Mario Villawarayan and much more.

We Sri Lankans while having enough talent of our own, always look to England, Australia and South Africa. Our mentality is that there is something special that they can do which Sri Lankans can’t do. Bangladesh, however, are quite content with Sri Lankans. They are ever improving.

Ours is not an effort to have  a dig at the hiring of Tom Moody. That was a good choice and so is Head Coach Mickey Arthur who has a proven record. But how about some other choices? Former captain Hashan Tillekeratne, one of the respected voices in the sport, recently claimed that some of the physiotherapists brought from overseas had no idea on basics such as bandaging. That’s the sorry state of our cricket.

Sidath Wettimuny when he was Chairman of SLC felt the urgent need to put up a cricket center with basic facilities like a swimming pool. To date, Sri Lanka Cricket doesn’t own a pool. Bangladesh took that blueprint and put up a facility in Dhaka. Sidath’s plan was never followed up by his successors. They were more worried about doling out money to their vote base. They were spending like drunken sailors hitting town.

The other thing that Bangladesh have done right is to strengthen their school and club cricket. We all know what happened with club cricket where more teams were given First Class status to please the vote base. As parliamentarian Kumara Welgama pointed out the other day, SLC doesn’t even spend one percent of their revenues on schools. Why? That’s because schools don’t have votes. Clubs have. Hundreds of them.

Najmul Shanto who posted a fine 163 in the first innings has been groomed for a few years now. Players like him get a lot of exposure with the Under-19 side and the ‘A’ team. SLC is allergic towards ‘A’ team cricket. So how will young players develop? Already our First Class system consists of too many teams. Bangladesh learned their lessons from us. Now it is time for us to learn a few from them. No shame in that.