THE 1999 World Cup is less than nine months away but the one nation which was most delighted to gain entry -- Bangladesh -- appears to have its platter full of nothing but trouble. The hammering which the cricket team has taken in the Commonwealth Games is the culmination of a long process which saw the coach, veteran West Indies opener Gordon Greenidge, being axed earlier this year.
It is common to see politics intrude into sport in the subcontinent. The moment a team has gains some plaudits -- as Bangladesh did when they won the ICC tournament -- and gains some visibility, all sorts of unsavoury characters try to muscle in and and get their two minutes of fame. There are bound to be hangers-on but when politicians start putting their fingers into the pie, then it becomes a terrible mess.
The mistake made by Bangladesh was not leaving things to Greenidge to handle. In the days when the team yearned for recognition, there was nothing at stake so Greenidge was mostly left to his own devices. He moulded the team into a fighting outfit and his efforts were rewarded to the extent of being granted honorary citizenship.
Remember the case of Dav Whatmore? He coached Sri Lanka to a match-winning performance in the World Cup in 1996. Until then, the country had done nothing of note on the world stage. But after that sundry people wanted to have their two minutes of fame and ultimately Whatmore was pushed out.
What has happened in Bangladesh is not exactly the same. But it is clear that Greenidge was not allowed to do his job the way he wanted. Locals wanted to get in on the act. Basically, it was a case similar to the old saw -- trying to teach one's grandmother to suck boiled eggs. If there is anything that one can teach Greenidge about cricket, then it can be written on an average postage stamp. One does not attempt to teach Bill Gates how to sell software.
But interference by politicians and their cronies is rampant in the subcontinental sporting scene. Witness the way India was forced to send Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Ajay Jadeja to Malaysia along with the Commonwealth Games squad; if the board had had its way, they would all have gone to Toronto instead. But once the Indian Olympic Association made it an issue and roped in politicians to apply pressure, there was no way the board could do anything.
At the time Bangladesh were accorded official one-day status by the ICC, I wrote a piece pointing out that this, perhaps, had to do more with political expediency than anything else. One doesn''t like to say " I told you so", but it now appears that this decision was hasty. The ICC could have waited a year more to judge how consistent Bangladesh's performances were. A loss -- and a big one too -- to Northern Ireland is not exactly the best advertisement for a team which has been granted official one-day status.
The horrendous losses in Malaysia have led to the new coach resigning. This does not solve things for Bangladesh, it only compounds the problem. Most coaches would like to have carte blanche when they start with a team and it would be no different in the case of Bangladesh; additionally, any man who now accepts the job with Bangladesh would have to do so realising that his job may well be on the line if the team does badly in the World Cup.
It is the pity that the team finds itself in this position. Essentially, they have shot themselves in the foot even before they played in their first top-level tournament. The best one can hope for is that other countries will learn from this and leave cricketing matters to those who know the right side of a bat.