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| July 10, 2003 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 9,1424 |
‘Aussies should do Bangladesh no favours’
SYDNEY, July 9: Outspoken former Australian batsman David Hookes says Bangladesh don’t deserve to play Test cricket and has called on Steve Waugh’s world champions to humiliate them in their two Tests in Australia’s north.
In comments that won’t go down well with Asian cricket followers, Hookes, now a television commentator, says there is the potential for this month’s first-ever Tests in Darwin and Cairns to turn into one-day events.
Australian cricket enthusiasts are anticipating a number of records to fall when the world’s best team takes on the worst in Darwin from July 18 and in Cairns from July 25.
“Steve Waugh should send them in to bat, bowl them out before lunch, bat until tea and declare, then send them back in and roll them again before stumps,” Hookes claimed on Wednesday.
“It could be all over and done with in a day. The reality is that Bangladesh doesn’t deserve to be in Test cricket and they certainly shouldn’t be given any favours out on the field.
“If the Australian team is being true to the Test cap, their aim will be to go out there and annihilate Bangladesh.”
Australian wicket-keeper/batsman Adam Gilchrist has already revealed his side will show Bangladesh no mercy, setting the scene for what could be two of the shortest Test matches of all time — as long as Waugh doesn’t elect to bat too long.
“Nobody wants to see Australia go out there and score a thousand runs,” said Hookes.
Never before in 126 years of Test cricket has there been a result on the first day, but there have been 17 instances of two-day drubbings.
The first was Australia’s seven-run win over England at The Oval in 1882 when Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth took 14 wickets, leading to the mock obituary for English cricket that appeared in a London newspaper and led to the creation of the Ashes.
The most recent was Australia’s victory by an innings and 198 runs against Pakistan at Sharjah last October, when Shane Warne took eight wickets and Matt Hayden scored 119.
The lowest Test innings total is New Zealand’s 26, made against England in Auckland 1954-55. The highest is Sri Lanka’s 952 for six declared against India at Colombo in 1997 when Sanath Jayasuriya scored 340 and Anil Kumble went for 1-223.
Some even claim that West Indian Brian Lara’s world record of 375 — made against England at St John’s, Antigua in 1994 — will be under threat if Australia refuses to declare, as will Viv Richards’ record for the fastest Test century from just 56 balls.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh coach Dev Whatmore says his team can restore its battered reputation in the coming series.
“We are here to make sure that we get on the right track and play the sort of cricket that world cricket demands Bangladesh play,” Whatmore told reporters in Darwin on Wednesday.
“It’s no secret that performances with the team haven’t been as good as what anybody would like.
“We see this series, as hard as it’s going to be against a team ranked number one as the commencement of something really wonderful for our cricket, the sub-continent area and world cricket as well.”
Bangladesh have lost 18 and drawn one of their 19 matches since gaining Test status in 2000 and are bottom of the International Cricket Council’s 10-nation Test championship.
Their third and final warm-up game is a four-day match against a Northern Territory Chief Minister’s XI starting in Darwin on Thursday.
Uncapped New South Wales batsman Michael Clarke, who has played five One-day Internationals, will captain the Northern Territory XI against Bangladesh.—AFP/Reuters
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