‘There is every possibility of bigger humiliations’

Bangladesh's lacklustre Women's Asia Cup mission ended on Friday with a humiliating 10-wicket defeat to India in the semifinal, a drubbing that could be the precursor to more such embarrassments in the forthcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup at home.

The Tigresses have been struggling since the start of the year and went into the regional competition after conceding back-to-back series defeats to Australia and India on home soil.

The players then featured in the Dhaka Premier Division Women's Cricket League and also had a two-week training camp at the BKSP ahead of the meet, but could hardly put up a fight against hosts Sri Lanka in their opening game, which they lost by seven wickets.

Bangladesh went on the win against Thailand and Malaysia to book a place in the last four, where they came across seven-time champions India, against whom they had conceded a 5-0 defeat in a five-match series recently.

In the semifinal, the difference in quality of the two sides came to the fore as the Tigresses got mauled by their Indian counterparts in all three departments.

As Bangladesh are bracketed with tough opponents like England, the West Indies and South Africa in the T20 World Cup, which is set to start on October 3, things aren't looking great for the hosts at the moment.

"There is every possibility of bigger humiliations in the upcoming World Cup," Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, who mentored the women's team during their 2018 Asia Cup success in Malaysia, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"It wouldn't be surprising if we don't do well. There will be more criticism and I don't think they [players] would be able to handle that. I think it would be even more difficult for them.

"There was a time when we gave tough fight to India while Pakistan and Sri Lanka were similar to us. But now the latter teams have reached a new level while we are going backwards and becoming like Thailand and the UAE," he added.

Fahim was critical of the quality of women's domestic cricket in Bangladesh while he lambasted the team management for their continuous failure.

"The quality of our domestic cricket is so poor that we can't actually think of getting players for international level from there. Our domestic cricket is little better than Thailand and the UAE and because of that, we feel comfortable playing against them.

"There was an attempt to develop women's cricket [after Asia Cup win]. But I don't know how things have gradually regressed in the last two to three years. I think we lack a competitive culture in our cricket. We should have been in the place behind India but above Pakistan, Sri Lanka. But we failed to maintain the continuity. I think it's not clear to many for what objectives and purpose we play cricket.

"I don't think the current management of the women's team can bring better results. This management has been working with the team for quite a long time. If they could've gotten better results, they would have done it by now. I fear that things can go worse," he concluded.