If you want to know how costly missed opportunities can be better ask master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.

The collective contribution of Tendulkar and Ganguly was 230 runs, more than two third of India's first innings total of348-7 at stumps on the second day of the first Test at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

The figure in all probabilities is set to grow even bigger when Tendulkar, unbeaten on 159, walks on the ground today for a final crack

at tire ball with a delightful double hundred beckoning him.

But it could have been a totally different tale had the butterfingered Bangladesh fielders not let Tendulkar off the hook thrice even before the champion right-hander reached his first 50 after a surprising run-drought in the last eight innings since recovering from a tennis elbow.

Tendulkar offered a sharp chance while on nought but Mohammad Ashraful standing at backward short-leg dropped the mistimed pull. A generous Tendulkar, on 28, then edged one off Mashrafee-bin-Mortuza to first slip where Bashar spilled a regulation catch.

It was one of those rare days when Tendulkar, one of the few

batsmen in world cricket who seldom gives the fielder even a half chance, enjoyed life after life. Tendulkar was almost walking back to the dressing room when a Mohammad Rafique delivery popped up from good length and ballooned in the air after kissing his glove. But much to the horror of the ten thousand crowd, Rajin Saleh dropped it al silly point, which any school kid would have accepted like getting a piece of candy. Al that stage the little master was on 47. From then on it was payback time for Tendulkar.

The shoddy close catching came to the play again when Manzarul Islam messed up a straightforward offer at slip and this time the batsman

was Ganguly, who was batting on 14 but eventually went on to score 71.

Dropped catches are part of the game but for a struggling team like Bangladesh it is a luxury they can ill afford when chances for their bowlers are few and far between.

It is understandable that our batsmen are not quite technically equipped to handle the swing of Irfan or the flippers of Anil Kumble. Besides, we might not have any world-class bowler. But you don't need talent or whatsoever to be a top-class fielding side. Sri Lanka was considered an attractive fielding team even before they shot to fame in world cricket. Zimbabwe may be struggling like Bangladesh, but their fielding is strikingly sharp. Even Kenya, who don't belong to the Test family, certainly are sleekon the field.

But our problem is not down to having just poor reflexes, it is also a question of whether the charges of Dav Whatmore really know the basics of close-in fielding.

A man like Whatmore should know by now, which Bangladesh fielder suits which position because he has been associated with the team for more than a year.

The famed Australian may claim in his words that 'ground fielding was excellent' but what's the point if the slippers keep on slippi