Congratulations to the Bangladesh Cricket Board for hosting the Independence Cup tournament in Dhaka. The Board has put Dhaka on the international cricket map — a commendable and timely achievement.

Yet. the way the tournament matches had been scheduled leaves much to be desired. To many cricket lovers and to many who are familiar with the way similar tournaments have in the past been scheduled by other host countries, say. Australia or Sri Lanka, the match fixtures have been a great disappointment. It has pernaps inadvertently neglected the real interest of the host country — Bangladesh.

Being new to the international cricket, the team should have been given at least two more matches by restricting the final match to one and not three. After all. the tournament is to benefit Bangladesh players to get maximum exposure and experience of international first class cricket. That sadly has not been the case. 1 feel certain that the Bangladesh team has been very disappointed. I pray and. hope that as a result the team does not suffer from any Inferiority complex on this account even though the management might have unwittingly

overlooked their Interest and expectations.

We need not have taken all the trouble and expense of conducting the tournament to have two teams — India and Pakistan play five "exhibition" matches while the Bangladesh team was left in the cold and had only two matches. Why should Bangladesh choose to conduct what is labelled as the Independence Cup tournament when its own players are given minimum space in the tournament?

Let me be very clear lest I be misunderstood. The question of Bangladesh winning any of the matches had it played few more is not relevant — not yet anyway. It is not even the important thing. To me and to many more, it would have been perfectly Eroper for the home team to have ad more than minimum exposure and get the valuable experience that counts for so much.

Let us not forget that it is in the national interest — in this case exposure to international class cricket — that such ventures are undertaken in the first place. If we do not secure our own interest as the host country, what chances we have of doing that when we play at other venues?