England vs Bangladesh. Maturity needed

Yesterday Wickman watched the opening one dayer between us and Bangladesh. In HD. From somewhere called Mirpur. Anyone who thinks Sky should be rewarded for this sort of admittedly commercially driven behaviour by then being asked to hand over the Ashes to terrestrial TV needs to be put in a darkened room with a cold compress. But Wickman already digresses.

Not a student of Bangladeshi cricket (opens paper, sees they got beaten, wonders when Mohammed Ashrafal will stop being accused of wasting his talent), Wickman was pretty darned surprised to turn on to Tamin Iqbal in imperious form and Bangladesh at the halfway stage threatening a monster score on a pretty unlikely kind of wicket.

A cursory inspection of the cards showed once again the entire weight of our bowling effort was being shouldered by the inestimable Swanny, Frontbottom was mistakenly playing instead of Treadwell and a quick look at the demeanour of the new England captain suggested he was wondering which of his highly paid stars would bail him out of what was looking like a pretty leaky ship.

Help arrived with a middle order collapse courtesy of some crummy running by the Banglas and some un-Pietersenesque fielding by Kevin Pietersen. And after a good fightback between Tamin and Naeem for the seventh wicket Bangladesh subsided to the sort of total that England have been managing to chase recently.

And then the wailing and gnashing of teeth started in the commentary box and the comment sections of cricinfo. Apparently (Wickman told you he was no expert) the story of Bangladeshi cricket is one long missed opportunity caused by naivety of young players. This is a cricketing nation on the edge of greatness held back only by a collective ability to screw things up due to not having enough experience. Andrew Miller on cricinfo contrasted Bangladesh with the boring, shovelling through midwicket maturity of Collingwood and pointed the finger. The Sky commentators - especially the home team - were quick to abandon all hope.

Which is a bit odd really. Collingwood apart with his 174 appearances, man for man England have played fewer of these things than their counterparts. That said they probably have played more First Class cricket, but in pure international terms England are a younger set up. Which of course causes huge problems. The line that in a couple of years Bangladesh will be world beaters once they can find some experience doesn't really hold true does it?

But the biggest issue of immaturity occurred not on the field but in the commentary box. In a moment where time stood still Wickman thought perhaps that there was not enough oxygen in his living room, a (can't find the name) Bangladesh commentator said, on live television in front of an audience of perhaps millions, that Alistair Cook was batting like Brian Lara.

Dear God. Many commentators are fond of hyperbole readers and some sub-continental commentators are fonder than others, but this was stretching a point. Cooky was slog sweeping like a goodun and his back foot forces through point were efficient there's no doubt. Perhaps we are seeing the emergence of a left-handed Graham Gooch. But an English Lara?

Wickman paused and hoped for some sign that this was a sly dig, a masterful piece of sarcasm. But there was nothing. The English commentator was momentarily quiet. Almost rueful. Nothing was said. It became a longeur... the tension was palatable. Potable even. But then the new Lara eased a single to get off strike and the howler was allowed to drift back into time.

Forget the players. Until the commentators can avoid this kind of terrible naivety Bangladesh cricket has got some way to go.