da aviator aposta： Jamie Siddons remains convinced his team has madestrides over the last two weeks
da realbet： Andrew McGlashan at Old Trafford06-Jun-2010There will be a lot of familiar headlines on Monday after Bangladeshtwice subsided inside a session. Sport moves on quickly and thestories will question the team’s ability and probably their right toplay Test cricket. After providing such impressive resistance atLord’s, and then making England work hard for a day-and-a-half at OldTrafford, it was a bad time to fold so meekly.However, coach Jamie Siddons remained convinced his team had madestrides over the last two weeks. “Don’t write us off too much,” hesaid. “If things had gone our way we could have knocked England overfor a bit less then it’s up to our batsmen. We have two or three whocan do that but the others need to catch up. We are still on alearning curve. We are easy-beats when conditions suit here, butcertainly not at home or in India or as we showed in New Zealand.”Whatever they say we’ve heard it before, no doubt about that,”Siddons added about the flak his team will get. “We played three gooddays at Lord’s, our top order was really good and our middle order isnormally much better than that. They did come in during some badconditions at Lord’s but here they should have applied themselves better.We’ve got a couple of players who are standing up but others aren’tand we need consistency.”Admittedly 10 years after making their Test debut it is requiring aheap of patience to believe that Bangladesh will eventually become aforce in the longer format, but over the last two weeks there havebeen enough signs that progress is being made. Certainly compared totheir visit here five years ago, where the two Tests at Lord’s andChester-le-Street were both wrapped up in little more than two days, there have beensignificant advances.Top of that list has been the performance of Tamim Iqbal who scored268 flamboyant runs in the two matches, while in terms of individualdevelopment the performance of Imrul Kayes, his opening partner, hasbeen heartening after he looked a walking wicket in the first inningsat Chittagong in March.Bangladesh are not due to return to England until 2020 but what theyneed is more overseas experience in these conditions, not less. Theproblem is, though, that they are a tough product to market and it’s acredit to Lancashire that the crowds at Old Trafford have been strong,especially on the opening two days. It is also why players like Tamimare vital because they make the team marketable and will encourageother nations who play in different conditions to invite them.”We have put in such hard work with the batsmen,” Siddons said. “Wehad a good session with Tamim the other day but the spin was too much.If it spins a lot or swings a lot we are in trouble. Our wickets dospin but our young players aren’t used to that sort of pressure. Theydidn’t cope that well.”When conditions are good and not doing too much we are competitivewith any team in the world and can take them to five days,” he added.”But we haven’t got enough matchwinners to win the games yet. Our fastbowlers aren’t good enough to run through sides, but with ourspinners, Shakib has shown he can take five-fors and he’s a world-class spinner.”However Siddons knows collapses like they produced at Old Trafford dotheir image no favours and only add fuel to the fire for those whoquestion why they sit at cricket’s top table with so little to showfor a decade’s work.”I’d hate to come back here and put that performance up again,” headmitted. “We need to be better and it takes time to get people readyfor that type of swing bowling. We’ve got Tamim and Shakib, who is amuch better player than he showed here. But we have good things towork on, that’s what makes coaching this team such fun.”It takes quite a phlegmatic character to be able to think of fun aftera 34th innings defeat in 68 Tests, but Siddons has had plenty ofexperience with dealing with the situation. “You have to pick them upall the time but to their credit they keep coming back.”Bangladesh’s next assignment is the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka before theyreturn to England for a three-match one-day series in July. Don’t besurprised if over the next month they upset major opposition in aformat where their deficiencies aren’t so ruthlessly exposed. Progressis being made even if it doesn’t always look that way.