History of Bangladesh Cricket

2008

Bangladesh started their year of 2008 by touring New Zealand. They finished their ODI matches in December 2007 and started to play their Test matches against New Zealand. Their 1st Test with New Zealand was at Dunedin on January 4–6, 2008. The result shows that they had bad start in 2008 because New Zealand won by 9 wickets. Bangladesh 137 and 254; New Zealand 357 and 39/1. In the second Test, New Zealand scored 393, whereas Bangladesh scored 143 and 133. The game took place at Wellington on January 12–14, 2008. Again, New Zealand won by an innings and 137 runs.

South Africa toured Bangladesh in early 2008 and won all their matches, winning the Tests 2–0 and the ODIs 3–0. Bangladesh then beat non-Test playing Ireland 3–0 in an ODI series.

On 9 October 2008, Bangladesh recorded its first ever victory over New zeland in an ODI winning by seven wickets in Mirpur reinstating their reputation of being so called "giant killers". What followed was a closely contesting two-match Test series won by New Zealand 1–0, where despite Shakib Al Hasan's 7/36, New Zealand scored the necessary 317 for victory in the first Test for the loss of 7 wickets. The second match was drawn due to rain.

In November, Bangladesh had a tour away to South Africa. They lost all their matches, in the only T20 match, 2–0 in the ODI series (with the third one being washed out due to rain) and 2–0 in the Test series. They only could become competitive in the Twenty20 and the first of the ODIs. Otherwise, glimpses of good performances were shown in an otherwise total disappointing tour.

In December, however, Bangladesh bounced back from the previous lacklustre performances by threatening to win the first Test match against Sri Lanka by chasing down the highest 4th innings of total of 513. Though they fell 107 runs short, their performances were praised but in the second match of the home series in January, Bangladesh fell to an innings defeat.

2009

The year started with the innings defeat in the 2nd Test match against Sri Lanka. Then Zimbabwe joined the hosts and the Lankan team for a tri-series tournament, which proved to be more evenly matched than was expected. In the first match, Zimbabwe defeated Bangladesh by an excellent performance but then fell to defeat by a huge margin by Sri Lanka leaving Bangladesh needing to win against the Lankans in the last match in order to go through to the finals to join the Lankans, and that also with a bonus point. The hosts managed to do that thanks to a sparkling performance from the current No. 1 ODI all-rounder in the world SAkib, and the newcomer Rubel.

The final was one which managed to go down as one of the most entertaining matches ever in ODI cricket history. Sri Lanka bundled out the hosts for a mere 151 and were preparing for a straightforward win, only to be stunned by some deadly bowling performances from Masrafe which saw the Lankans to be reduced to a shocking 6/5, which was the lowest total for a team to lose five wickets at. Then appeared to take the game away from the hosts, but striked with two quick wickets reducing the Lankans to 114/8. And then just when the Bangladeshis were getting the sniff of their first major ODI series win, an unlikely and equally enthralling hitting display from the Sri Lankan legendary offspinner snatched the victory away from the tearful hosts. was announced as the man of the tournament, which barely consolated the Bangladesh team which performed out of their skin only to let it slip at the end.

In March 2009, the Bangladesh government indefinitely postponed all sports tours of Bangladesh because it could not guarantee the safety of touring sportsmen . This meant that of the country – which was scheduled to include five ODIs and two IT20s – was postponed. As yet the tour has not been rescheduled. In an attempt to prevent Bangladesh players choosing to play in the and risk a 10-year ban, the BCB raised the wages of its players by 30% in March 2009.^[8]

After the World championships in England, the selectors appointed Mashrafe Mortaza as the new captain of the team for the so that Ashraful could focus on his batting. The two Test series was played amidst controversy when a pay dispute between the West Indian players and the West Indies Cricket Board led a number of West Indian players boycotting the series, which forced the West Indies to select a number of inexperienced players as replacements.Bangladesh went on to win both of the Tests, wining the first Test by 95 runs and the second by four wickets^. In the process they achieved their first ever overseas Test series victory. In the One Day International series which followed Bangladesh secured their first ever One Day International win against the West Indies at the 14th attempt.They finished the ODI series 3-0 against the weaken West Indies side, but lost the only Twenty20 match.