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Blame it on fielding

Al Musabbir Sadi from Colombo
When Bangladesh were granted Test status five years ago, the first target of the Cricket Board was to make the Tigers into a good fielding side as that was one area where improvement could be achieved much quicker than batting and bowling.
But after the first one-day international against Sri Lankan at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground on Wednesday one could easily be tempted to say that Bangladesh not only was the bottom-ranked side but also the worst fielding team among the ten Test playing nations.
It was not that the butter-fingered fielders have dropped as many as four catches on top of a couple of missed run out chances, but it was their approach towards the art of fielding that came as a shocking revelation for the cricket lovers of the country.
Sri Lanka were an athletic side even before they shot into prominence while a struggling Zimbabwe still hold an edge in the art of fielding.
But on Wednesday what the Bangladeshi fielders had exhibited during the Sri Lankan innings can be best described as amateurish. Standing in the slips Shahriar Nafees dropped two catches and as if it was not enough the young lefthander floored another at long-on afterward. Mohammad Ashraful spilled a lollypop at point that even a schoolboy could not have missed.
If the catching was bad the ground fielding was worse. Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar sparked a lot of humour among the commentators when he let go a cut shot from Mahela Jayawardene to the backward point boundary. In modern day cricket that shot should have at best produced a single.
Moreover, no fielder was attacking the ball that has been a common feature in present day cricket. While the Bangladeshi fielders were tentative when gathering the ball, RusselArnold showed what ground fielding is all about. The left-hander ran from short cover to collect the ball from short gully before hurling it at the bowlers end in a flash that saw Bangladesh opener Javed Omar out of his crease when the ball hit the bulls eye.
There was concern over poor
fielding even before Bangladesh set off for Sri Lanka since it has not been put into practice. The lack of fielding practice during the build-up for the tour was also evident in their warm-up match where they had dropped several catches against the Sri Lankan Board President's Eleven.
Bangladesh promised to play hard cricket but they were too soft to allow the Lankans to amass 269-9, their second highest total after 296-4 in 46 overs at this very ground in the 1997 Asia Cup.
While the younger members of the team fumbled, it was veteran Javed Omar who palmed a brilliant catch at deep extra cover running from cover point to help Mohammad Rafique dismiss rival captain MarvanAtapattu.
However, Atapattu could have been stopped from reaching his 52nd ODI fifty had Nafees, fielding in the slips, not dropped him on three off the bowling of Tapash Baisya.
Khaled Mashud, the first ever Bangladeshi to play 100 limited-overs matches, also spilt a stumping chance with the Lankan skipper on 40, but the wicketkeeper might have been defied by a deflection off the pads.