KARACHI, Aug 16: Bangladesh arrive on a historic tour of Pakistan in the early hours of Sunday with the burning desire to give the hosts some sort of competition.

The beleaguered, and sometimes luckless, Bangladesh have yet to win a Test match being granted Test status in the year 2000 by International Cricket Council. Their brief Test history has so far produced 20 defeats in 21 games with the last 15 — a world record — in succession.

The Bangladeshis have been found wanting at the highest level because 15 of their losses were by an innings, including the recent drubbing in Australia.

Their one-day track record is equally abysmal despite that shock victory by 62 runs against Pakistan at Northampton in the 1999 World Cup. In the recent World Cup in southern Africa, Bangladesh failed to win any of their six matches, losing five including a 60-run defeat against Canada. They shared points with West Indies when the match was abandoned because of rain.

Dav Whatmore, the latest coach hired by Bangladesh, has predicted better performance by his team in Pakistan after their encouraging display in the Tests against Australia in Darwin and Cairns.

The tour of Pakistan is historic itself in the sense that it will be the first-ever three-match Test series as well as five-game One-day International assignment for Bangladesh.

All-rounder Khaled Mahmud has been retained as Bangladesh captain. He failed to claim a single wicket against Australia in either Tests or the three-match one-day series.

The arrival of the Bangladeshis heralds the start of international cricket in Pakistan after more than 16 months after security concerns dissuaded teams from visiting this country. But hopefully cricket will prevail once more in a busy season for Pakistan with South Africa and New Zealand also playing here.

Schedule

Aug 20-24: First Test (Karachi).

Aug 27-31: Second Test (Peshawar).

Sept 3-7: Third Test (Multan).

Sept 9: First One-day International (Multan).

Sept 12: Second One-day International (Faisalabad).

Sept 15: Third One-day International (Lahore, D/N).

Sept 18: Fourth One-day International (Rawalpindi, D/N).

Sept 21: Fifth One-day International (Karachi, D/N).