Gordon Greenidge, who coached Bangladesh towards qualification for the 1999 World Cup, was unexpectedly fired in the middle of that tournament

On the sunny Monday of June 26, 2000, Aminul Islam, the captain of the Bangladesh side that beat Pakistan in 1999, got a call from Dhaka. It was someone from the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Aminul was living in Portsmouth in Hampshire that summer, playing in the Southern Premier League. He was asked to drive to Lord's to be present for the press conference that would reveal Bangladesh as the newest ICC Full Member and Test team. The cable TV boom had already happened in south Asia, and one of the stations back home heard Aminul was going to be at the press conference. They arranged a camera and got him to report it for them.

Aminul lost his captaincy before the inaugural Test, in Dhaka against India in November that year, but he was part of the team. There had never been any first-class cricket in Bangladesh. Aminul prepared for the Test trying to perfect his leave during the English summer. He learnt the technique by reading Sunil Gavaskar's Idols and Geoffrey Boycott's manuals. His landlord, the journalist Andy Ford, used to tell him stories of how well Ian Botham played even after they took the captaincy away from him. Ford got Aminul a gym membership, and also arranged for him to net twice a week, a luxury in England. Aminul's preparation was arguably the best in the team.

Bangladesh was a limited-overs country then. The only cricket in schools was 35-overs-a-side knockout matches. Clubs, and not regional sides, dominated the national scene, and they were happy playing one-day cricket. The few multi-day matches were in the latter stage of the inter-district national championship, when the divisional champions faced off in three-day games - and here too sometimes only the final would be played over three days. First-class cricket reached Bangladesh only after its team had been granted Test status. Sure enough, in their first Test they looked lost after three days. They gave a good account of themselves with 400 in the first innings, but by the time India levelled the scores on the fourth morning, Bangladesh were out of energy and focus.

"By day four, we had all forgotten there were another 180 overs to go," Aminul says. "Our dressing room was a marketplace. Minister is coming, BCB president, guests are coming, Jimmy [Mohinder] Amarnath [one of Bangladesh's former coaches] is coming, Gordon Greenidge [another former coach]. Lack of experience, not just among players, but everyone. The only experience we had was the three-day matches against England A, Hyderabad Blues etc. We had no idea what a five-day match was. We played Tests like three-day matches. First three days we were competitive. On fourth and fifth days we would lose out."

Collect from : http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1046331/red-sun-rising