England v Bangladesh

Bangladesh have started their first tour of England with a 3 day game against the British Universities, making their way to 381 all out. Javed Omar (167) and Mohammad Ashraful (102) made centuries as no other batsman could make it past 24.

Perhaps more encouragingly, their bowlers have made an impression, reducing the University side to 71/4, two wickets for Tapash Baisya, one each for Shahadat Hossain and Mashrafe Mortaza.

With a little under 3 weeks to go before the start of their first Test against England they will want all the practise time in English conditions they can get before they step out at Lords at the end of May.

Were you at the game swerveman?

Certainly adds weight to those thinking that the Bangladeshis won't be able to cope with English conditions. M Rahim is only 16, I believe so that's one bright spot for them.

Bangladesh off to Northants now.

By the way, the England squad for the first Test:

Strauss, Vaughan, Trescothick, Bell, Thorpe, Flintoff, Giles, Hoggard, S Jones, G Jones, Harmison, Lewis

I think the selectors have got it almost right here. Bell  must be given another chance, although Key is unlucky to lose his place. There's no sense in putting Pieterson in there but Flintoff could and should be rested. I'd have put Collingwood in there myself but there we go. Apart from that, it's virtually as expected.

I've updated the thread title as we can now use it to discuss the Test series, which begins tomorrow. England have named their team:

Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan (c), Bell, Thorpe, Flintoff, G Jones (wk), Batty, S Jones, Hoggard, Harmison

Giles's hip didn't recover in time, the right decision taken in resting him. Vaughan returns to number 3.

Doctor i've moved your post into this thread.

There's no need to have a seperate topic on some pathetic two Test series between England and Bangladesh.

Well, i was out by 20 minutes!

Match over in 2 days and 20 minutes.

Where do likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe go from here.

Perhaps, they should be playing against the the Top Nations 'A' teams?

They should definitely be playing against top level A teams, or using their own 'A' tours to give their first teamers experience, as was suggested yesterday by one of the Radio 4 commentators.

Why wasn't there more attention put on Geraint Jones claiming a catch where 99.9% of the watching clearly saw the bounce hit the ground b4 Jones caught the ball. Had that happen to an English batsmen we would not have heard the last of it.

Jones wasn' t the only gulity party in the incident why didn't either umpire call for the third umpire.

Should Jones be fined or suspended for unsportman like conduct. 

I haven't seen the match or this series but let's face its not the first time farmer Jones has done this now is it? He did it last year and claimed a catch that was an inch short but because it was so close if actually let it bounce into his gloves and not go for a scoop catch then he knew he'd get away with it. He's a cheat through and through and i agree with you Imran he should be suspended or fined at the very least.

Also i do think more and more there is a bias towards England and against umpiring decisions that go against them like the whole debacle over lights in SA and the decision to tour Zimbabwe and so on.

Just heard Geraint Jones has escaped punishment after being cleared of deceiving the umpires for Nafees Iqbal's dismissal in the second Test against Bangladesh.

International Cricket Council match referee Alan Hurst found the Kent player not guilty at a post-match hearing.

What is happening to the ICC they ban Shoaib Malik for one test match for admitted he allowed Karachi to beat his club Siakot which resulted in their rivals Lahore to be knock out of the 20-20 cup in Pakistan while Geraint Jones blantantly cheats and gets away with it. Why is there one rule for Asian Countries and another rule for the other countries.