Since the inaugural Test, Bangladesh’s involvement in a historic Test match was the inauguration of electronics scoreboard at Basin Reserve, the traditional hub of New Zealand cricket.
In January 2008, prior to the second Test against Bangladesh, New Zealand inaugurated the scoreboard 140 years after the ground hosted its first ever cricket match.New Zealand named the scoreboard after Don Neely, the then president of New Zealand Cricket and cricket historian, who has authored more than 30 books.
New Zealand celebrated the occasion in grand style and Bangladesh could do little to spoil the party. It was another crushing defeat by an innings and 137 runs for Bangladesh despite the hosts could post just 393 runs on the board.
Now the time has come for Bangladesh to face another historic occasion, a far significant one than the simple inauguration of an electronics scoreboard, as they will be involved in West Indies’ 500th Test match from Saturday in St Lucia.
Only two countries – England (952 Tests) and Australia (767 Tests) – have played more Test matches than the Caribbeans, who once had given the game a new meaning with its world dominating players, including 17 ICC Hall of Fame inductees.
Since playing its first Test match in 1928, West Indies, a team that unite 15 English-speaking sovereign countries of the Caribbean region, capped 298 cricketers and some of them have truly emerged as legends, gracing the game with their magical skills.
Garry Sobers’ 365 at the age of 21, Brian Lara’s 375 and 400 and Viv Richards’ 56-ball hundred against England are all parts of cricket folklore and the pace quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Collin Croft left even the most acclaimed batsmen of their time trembling in their boots.
The country of Sobers, Lara, Richards, Roberts, Holding, Garner, Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, George Headley, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Curtly Ambrose, Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh has lost much of its glory long ago, but it has still something that no other country can boast of.
It is not an overstatement to say that the West Indians still enjoy the game more than anyone else despite them no longer being the world beaters they used to be in the 1970s and 1980s.
The advent of Twenty20 cricket has taken much of the attention away from Tests but still it holds some of the most decorated modern Test cricketers like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is playing cricket even at the age of 40.
Despite his all destructive batting in Twenty20 format and enigmatic form, Chris Gayle is another player who can claim to be a modern day great with two Test triple centuries to his name.
Bangladesh were not carefully chosen as opponents for their 500 Tests, rather an accidental choice, but it has given the Tigers at least an opportunity to make their own history.
In one-day cricket, they were gate-crasher in Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international century celebration. Now is the time for them to become a similar party spoiler in Tests.
-With New Age input
