As Bangladesh toast their greatest win it is worth just for a moment pondering two things: first, how far they have come since England, the vanquished, last toured these parts in 2010 and then what might have happened had they not come this time.
“They’ve obviously taken big strides,” Alastair Cook said, with a healthy dose of understatement. In 2010 the fact that Cook was captaining England said a bit about the opposition. Andrew Strauss was resting up and England still won both Tests, batting big on flat tracks, with ease – by 181 runs and nine wickets.
Now Bangladesh do not just have better players but they have a game plan, ambition and some street‑smarts, too. No one watching events in Chittagong last week could think a historic result was far away but they showed their mettle by not being cowed by that sucker punch. At the last World Cup Chandika Hathurusingha, the hard Sri Lankan newly at the helm, was shocked to see them celebrating victory over Afghanistan as if they had won the tournament, so they were duly dressed down.
Now he has masterminded a priceless Test win, on a fruitier (that is, more interesting) pitch than in 2010, and as Cook said: “They’ve decided they want to be brave and try to win and why wouldn’t you as a side?” Cook’s opposite number, Mushfiqur Rahim, confirmed the hosts’ enterprise. “From the time we knew England were coming,” he said, “we planned to make wickets that last three to four days. The sort of wicket that would help our spinners and trouble the English batsmen.”
And yet had England not come, after Australia’s withdrawal last year, Bangladesh would likely have become the second cricket-mad nation facing an undeserved, unwelcome nomadic spell in isolation. No one wanted that.
After the fiercely contested one-day international series, as England’s relieved, victorious players stood on the outfield and Jos Buttler did his post-match media duties, a small huddle of Bangladesh fans – so partisan during play – had stayed behind to chant: “England, thank you,” on loop. It may sound twee but that has been the theme of the tour; a genuine gratitude that England would come to play, through all the hurdles. Reg Dickason, the Melbourne cop in charge of England’s security detail, might just be an unlikely Bangladeshi hero.
It has not been easy for Dickason, the Bangladesh Cricket Board or the government, who footed the bill for the unprecedented security. England’s players have been overwhelmed by the protection they have received in a country where the threat of terror is real enough for western expats no longer to eat out and to leave home simply to work. The tour has passed without a snag but for the three old ladies on a tuk-tuk who slipped into the heavily armed convoy en route to the opening warm-up match in Fatullah. It has been a sports tour but also a message to the wider world: Bangladesh remains open for business.
At the end of it all Bangladesh have sent a message to the cricketing world, too. This was the eighth Test victory of their short – 95 matches in 16 years – career and the first not against Zimbabwe or the depleted West Indies of 2009. Mushfiqur thinks the sky is the limit. “It is a very big achievement in Bangladesh’s Test cricket history,” he said. “It came against a very good England side but there will be a time when we will win a series 2-0 against any big team.”
The win itself was a joyous, gyrating affair. Mirpur is one of those glorious grounds which can be viewed from surrounding rooftops, and locals peered in as the magic – spun by Mehedi Hasan Miraz, the wonderful 19‑year‑old – unfolded. Local journalists, so accustomed to brain fades, collapses and defeats in this format, could not believe their eyes. The many security guards downed their weapons. Those arms needed waving.
Bangladesh – without a Test in 14 months before this series – feed off scraps at cricket’s top table but they have series in New Zealand and Sri Lanka coming up and a Test in India, too. Australia’s security chief, Sean Carroll, is here with a view to touring in August. For this Bangladesh have more talent – with Sabbir Rahman and Mehedi complementing Mushfiqur, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal – to work with than ever before. Now it must be hoped the bowling coach, Courtney Walsh, can get Taskin Ahmed into whites.
England, as the convoy drove back to the hotel through streets lined with gleeful people, will have to take comfort in the fact they will not be the last to travel to Mirpur – the ground their next tormentor, Ravi Ashwin, described as “the most hostile venue for any visiting team” – and leave with a bloody nose. This, as Mushfiqur said, is just the start.
