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'Axing Bangladesh folly'

AFP, London
Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore insisted calls for the country to be stripped of its senior international status were "folly" despite seeing his team thrashed by an innings and 261 runs inside three days in the first Test against England here at Lord's.
Their first Test on English soil ended in Bangladesh suffering the tenth largest Test innings defeat, the Asian makeweights now the beaten side in three of the biggest 10 Test innings triumphs of all time.
Whatmore's men, who have won just one of their 37 Tests, now head to Durham for the second and final match of this series starting on Friday.
That gives them little time to absorb the impact of being bowled out for 108 and 159 while in between conceding 528 for three declared, Marcus Trescothick making 194 and England captain Michael Vaughan 120.
Although the International Cricket Council (ICC) remain adamant that Bangladesh will not lose
their place among the 10-strong Test elite, Saturday's result is bound to lead to renewed questions about their future.
However, when asked if they should remain a Test team, Whatmore told reporters: "The simple answer to that is yes.
"Trying to achieve what everyone wants us to achieve is tough but to solely take Bangladesh out of international status full representation is just pure folly, ridiculous. We need to have a means to an end."
Like neighbours India and Pakistan, Bangladesh's 140 million population is passionate about cricket.
"We've got all the potential ingredients, it's incredible," said Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to the 1996 World Cup.
One suggestion repeatedly put forward is to split Test cricket into two divisions, with teams such as Bangladesh and fellow strugglers Zimbabwe playing each other more often, in a bid to create meaningful competition, rather than suffer regular hammerings at the hands of the likes of Australia and England.
Another proposal is for Bangladesh, which has no first-
class cricket structure in place, to play more games against the leading associate or non-Test nations.
But former Australia batsman Whatmore said of two divisions: "I don't think so." And as for extra marches against non-Test countries, he added: "I'm not sure that's the answer because comparing us to any of the associates that's foolish as well."
However, he admitted it was tough trying to maintain morale as the defeats piled up. "Yes the confidence does get knocked around a bit and we've got to guard against that.
"But having said that we had a lot of losses and came across a great victory against India (where Bangladesh won a one-day international in Dhaka by 15 runs in December).
"And then we backed that up with a history-making Test and one-day series win against Zimbabwe (on home soil in January). It is possible to get beaten, beaten, beaten and win."
Vaughan, whose team face Australia in a five-Test Ashes contest later this season, refused to be drawn into the row about Bangladesh's status.
"It's up to ICC to make that decision not me. Players don't set out the schedules we just turn up and play."
Meanwhile Whatmore was adamant there were positives for Bangladesh, who became a Test nation in 2000, at Lord's where they struggled to cope with the swing friendly conditions. "We had an opening stand of 31 which was encouraging but as soon we were asked to decipher what to and what not to (play) there were mistakes.
"It's about reading and reacting, to have the discipline to play within conditions. But they were totally foreign to what the boys play on in Bangladesh or sub-continent."
And while the result would probably have been the same, the scale of the defeat might have been smaller had not Bangladesh dropped all of England's top four batsmen, includ- ing Vaughan on eight.
"I also felt there was enough chances created. You take the catch off Vaughan and he's out early," Whatmore added.
"I just felt the boys had a little bit of disbelief about being able to get the ball past the bat and get a wicket. There were chances created even though we only had 108 on the board.
"But (fast bowler Mashrafee) bin-Mortuza deserved more wickets.
Whatmore praised too the second innings effort of Khaled Mashud, who made 44 and the endurance of left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique, who got through 41 overs for a respectable 150 runs.
Whatmore also singled out 16-year-old debutant Mushfiqur Rahim, who grafted for 85 minutes in scoring 19, one of just three doublefigure scores, when Bangladesh batted first.
"Khaled Mashud, is a bit of a crisis guy, he's done well, Mohammad Rafique toiled away manfully and little Rahim showed enough to suggest he might be around for a while."