Women' Cricket In Bangladesh

Curiously, Ireland and Netherlands are women Test playing nations while they are yet to gain Test status in the men’s version.

Women One Day Internationals are played since 1973 and the first ever Women’s Cricket World Cup was held in the same year in England in which the host emerged as champion. In addition to the above mentioned nations, Denmark, Japan and Scotland also have been awarded One Day status.

Only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the two Test playing nations who do not play either Test or One Day cricket in the women’s version of the game. Recently Zimbabwe won the Women's World Cup Qualifiers – Africa region, to reach the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifying Tournament 2007 (WCWCQT) in Pakistan.

Jubilinat Bhola cricketers

Bangladesh Cricket Board is expected to form a national cricket team out of the top 30 performers of the maiden championship. Ten teams have participated in the opening tourney in two groups.

Group A: Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Ansar, Narayanganj. Group B: Bhola, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar University, Bogra, Rangamati.
Amid huge enthusiasm, the opening ceremony of the tournament was held on 27th January 2007 at Mirpur Sher E Bangla National Stadium. Women cricketers showed good cricketing skills and were very enthusiastic on and off the field. Bhola, Dhaka, Jahangir Nagar University and Khulna reached to the semifinals. Bhola and Khulna were the winners over Dhaka and Jahangir Nagar University respectively to reach the final which was held on 5th February 2007 at Mirpur Stadium. Bhola emerged as the champion defeating Khulna by 5 wickets.

Now that the first step has already been taken, it is very important to take the subsequent steps with proper planning. An environment must be created so that girls from every sections of the society feel interested for the sport and regular domestic league is staged in every division if not in every district. Bangladesh Krira Shikhka Protisthan (BKSP) should also start considering a new discipline on women's cricket to nurture young talents and make them quality cricketers. Inter-University Women's Cricket Championship will promote interest as well. As Bangladesh is not receiving any ICC grant to promote women’s cricket, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) should create its own funding and encourage sponsors to come forward.

Certain religious groups might try to hinder the prospect of women’s cricket in Bangladesh, but cricket here has a deep and passionate root strong enough to keep the distractors away.

Fans, welcome and hail the initiatives of BCB, and expect Bangladesh Women Cricket team will make their mark soon enough.

Women' Cricket In Bangladesh

Start Of A New Era:

Bangladesh cricket has made a significant step forward by launching the first ever National Women Cricket Championship in 2007. This is also the first time in our history when women cricketers will play in any form of domestic cricket. While most of the test playing nations are regularly playing female versions of Test and One Day series, we do not even have a national women's cricket team. Limited efforts were taken to build a national team in the past, but an international side has never represented Bangladesh due mainly to lack of interest from the organizers on top of cultural difficulties.

Veteran cricket coach Altaf Hossain has been making hard and solitary effort to promote women’s cricket for the last few years. Bangladesh was invited in November 2005 to take part in the second Women’s Asia Cup and around 20 cricketers were selected for a camp under the supervision of coach Altaf Hossain. After a few weeks of camping, Bangladesh finally turned down the invitation fearing that the team’s performance would not be competitive enough.

In the history book, the first recorded women’s cricket match was held in 1745 and the first match between two teams representing counties was in 1811 in London. Women's Test cricket has been played since December 1934. The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1958 to coordinate women's cricket which was officially integrated with International Cricket Council in 2005 after the eighth Women’s World Cup in South Africa which was won by Australia. Following women cricket teams have been awarded Test status by International Cricket Council to date: Australia, England, India , Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa , Sri Lanka and West Indies.

Domestic cricket in Bangladesh

The standard of cricket quickly rose, and soon Bangladesh was the top ICC associate country in the region, winning all ACC tournaments. This gave them the opportunity to play in the Asia Cup, against teams like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Third Asia Cup took place in Bangladesh in 1988 with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participating as well as the host country.

In 1989/90, Bangladesh played hosts to the First Under-19 Asia Cup. In 1997, Bangladesh won the ICC Trophy in Malaysia, qualifying for its first ever world cup appearance. Soon after, Bangladesh, along with Kenya were granted full ODI status by the ICC. Bangladesh posted its first ODI win against Kenya in India in 1998. In October 1998, Bangladesh hosted—although they did not participate—the first ever "Mini World Cup", a knock-out basis ODI tournament featuring all the test playing nations. In 1999, in their maiden appearance at the World Cup in England, Bangladesh defeated fellow ICC associate Scotland, and then won a match from favorites Pakistan.

After a disappointing performance in the last match, touring Bangladesh meets Zimbabwe in the 4th ODI of the five-match Grameenphone Cup Series tday (Sunday) at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo hoping seal the series with one match in hand.

The winning streak of new look Bangladesh, under the captaincy of energetic Shakib Al Hasan, was halted Friday as the Bengal Tigers conceded 69-run defeat in the 3rd ODI against Zimbabwe, which made record score of 323 against Bangladesh and also at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.

The hope of Bengal Tigers to win the eighth consecutive ODI match did not materialize following their frustrating defeat in the 3rd ODI although they whitewashed West Indies 3-0 last month and earned a deserving eight-wicket and 49-run victory over hosts Zimbabwe in the first two matches of the ongoing series.

Bangladesh, however, has a fair chance of clinching the ODI series for the third successive time in a calendar year if they can beat Zimbabwe in Sunday’s 4th ODI match. Bangladesh earned a 2-1 win over Zimbabwe in Dhaka last January and a 3-0 victory over West Indies last month.

Earlier, Bangladesh won overseas ODI series only on three occasions — whitewashing non-test playing Kenya 3-0 in 2006, beating Zimbabwe 3-1 in 2006-07 and whitewashing West Indies 3-0 last month.

A win at Bulawayo on Sunday would enable Bangladesh to celebrate its 50th ODI victory in 205 matches since starting their international one-day campaign against Pakistan at Moratuwa in Sri Lanka in 1986.

Bangladesh has made one change for Sunday’s crucial 4th ODI of the Grameenphone Cup against Zimbabwe. Mehrab Hossain Jr., who played in the third match the Tigers lost by 69 runs, makes way for opening batsman Zunaed Siddique. Bangladesh leads the five-match series 2-1.

Tiger Cricket.com added that the injury-struck Bangladesh side is still without the services of pacer Nazmul Hossain who is nursing a thigh strain.

With Rubel Hossain already ruled out of the series due to injury Bangladesh will again rely on their only fit pacers Syed Rasel and Mahbubul Alam for early breakthroughs in tomorrow’s game. Rubel’s replacement Dollar Mahmud is expected in Bulawayo on the morning of the game.

“We know that we did not execute our plan well and we let our standards drop.

Everyone realises that we only have ourselves to blame for the defeat on Friday. We are really focused on putting up a much improved show tomorrow,” said vice captain Mushfiqur Rahim after the Bangladesh side had completed an intense training session at the Queens Sports Club today.

“The wicket is absolutely flat and there is no margin for error. The game has to be won with high intensity cricket and if you lose concentration for a few overs while fielding then the match can quickly get away from you,” added Rahim.

Bangladesh team:

Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Roqibul Hassan, Mushfiqur Rahim (Vice Captain/WK), Mahmud Ullah, Naeem Islam, Mahbubul Alam, Enamul Haque Jr., Syed Rasel. 12th man – Mehrab Hossain Jr.

The future

Bangladeshi former captain Habibul bashar and former coach Dav whatmare have said that they hope Bangladesh will become a serious cricketing contender by 2010. Cricket's enormous popularity with the Bangladeshi people has produced a mood of optimism that this ambition can be achieved. Bangladesh's U19 team, the stepping stone before the International Test scene, regularly performs well against established Test nation's U19 teams.

Many have criticized Bangladesh's elevation to Test Status. The country's supporters counter this by pointing out that it took New Zealand, now a strong international side in both forms of the game, 20 years to win its first Test match. Possibly due to these doubts about Bangladesh's ability to compete at the highest level, Bangladesh will only get the opportunity to play 41 Tests through 2006–2012 (the least among full ICC members with the sole exception of Zimbabwe), according to the recently publicised ICC Future Tours Programme.

India, which strongly supported Bangladesh’s bid for Test status in 2001, is the only full member nation not to invite Bangladesh to play on its own soil, even though India is due to tour Bangladesh three times between 2006 and 2012. Bangladesh has yet to play a Test on Indian soil. Some have suggested that India, which will be one of the busiest cricketing nations during this period, did not schedule to play Bangladesh because of time conflicts and fear of player fatigue. However, this still strengthens the notion that Bangladesh is not on an even footing with other Test playing nations when it comes to securing regular international fixtures. For example, Bangladesh usually plays only two Tests in a Test series, while most other countries play three or more matches.

The future

Bangladeshi former captain Habibul bashar and former coach Dav whatmare have said that they hope Bangladesh will become a serious cricketing contender by 2010. Cricket's enormous popularity with the Bangladeshi people has produced a mood of optimism that this ambition can be achieved. Bangladesh's U19 team, the stepping stone before the International Test scene, regularly performs well against established Test nation's U19 teams.

Many have criticized Bangladesh's elevation to Test Status. The country's supporters counter this by pointing out that it took New Zealand, now a strong international side in both forms of the game, 20 years to win its first Test match. Possibly due to these doubts about Bangladesh's ability to compete at the highest level, Bangladesh will only get the opportunity to play 41 Tests through 2006–2012 (the least among full ICC members with the sole exception of Zimbabwe), according to the recently publicised ICC Future Tours Programme.

India, which strongly supported Bangladesh’s bid for Test status in 2001, is the only full member nation not to invite Bangladesh to play on its own soil, even though India is due to tour Bangladesh three times between 2006 and 2012. Bangladesh has yet to play a Test on Indian soil. Some have suggested that India, which will be one of the busiest cricketing nations during this period, did not schedule to play Bangladesh because of time conflicts and fear of player fatigue. However, this still strengthens the notion that Bangladesh is not on an even footing with other Test playing nations when it comes to securing regular international fixtures. For example, Bangladesh usually plays only two Tests in a Test series, while most other countries play three or more matches.

The future

Bangladeshi former captain Habibul bashar and former coach Dav whatmare have said that they hope Bangladesh will become a serious cricketing contender by 2010. Cricket's enormous popularity with the Bangladeshi people has produced a mood of optimism that this ambition can be achieved. Bangladesh's U19 team, the stepping stone before the International Test scene, regularly performs well against established Test nation's U19 teams.

Many have criticized Bangladesh's elevation to Test Status. The country's supporters counter this by pointing out that it took New Zealand, now a strong international side in both forms of the game, 20 years to win its first Test match. Possibly due to these doubts about Bangladesh's ability to compete at the highest level, Bangladesh will only get the opportunity to play 41 Tests through 2006–2012 (the least among full ICC members with the sole exception of Zimbabwe), according to the recently publicised ICC Future Tours Programme.

India, which strongly supported Bangladesh’s bid for Test status in 2001, is the only full member nation not to invite Bangladesh to play on its own soil, even though India is due to tour Bangladesh three times between 2006 and 2012. Bangladesh has yet to play a Test on Indian soil. Some have suggested that India, which will be one of the busiest cricketing nations during this period, did not schedule to play Bangladesh because of time conflicts and fear of player fatigue. However, this still strengthens the notion that Bangladesh is not on an even footing with other Test playing nations when it comes to securing regular international fixtures. For example, Bangladesh usually plays only two Tests in a Test series, while most other countries play three or more matches.