After Bangladesh suffered yet another crushing defeat, coach Dav Whatmore pleaded the country's fans to have some more patience with the team.
"We came a whisker close in Multan (of a victory against Pakistan), I can understand the frustration of all in Bangladesh. But I plead with everyone to have some more patience," Whatmore said after his team was thrashed by an innings and 140 runs by India in the first Test in Dhaka on Monday.
"The boys are working hard and there has been some degree of improvement," said the coach who had led Sri Lanka to World Cup victory in 1996.
Whatmore rubbished criticism that Bangladesh did not deserve their Test status.
"It is absolutely rubbish, it is a shallow view. People need to understand the game and Bangladesh cricket, those are dangerous comments," he said.
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly also had some encouraging words for the hosts.
"They played well in patches. They bowled well on the second morning. As I said before, it is still a learning curve for them, early days in internatioal cricket. We have to give them more time," he said.
Whatmore also rebutted the charge that his team was short of quality batting skills.
"Contrary to what many people think, the talent here is the same as in other countries in the Asian subcontinent. What we need is competition, and to cut out shots of indiscretions."
Both Ganguly and Whatmore felt that the Bangabandhu track proved to be a good wicket and hoped for the same in Chittagong, venue of the second Test starting on Thursday.
Whatmore said losing the toss did not matter as his team would have batted first anyway.
"The new ball did the damage. That was the start of it (downward trend) and it was always going to be difficult to play catch up with a quality opposition.
"The team needs to try and not hand the advantage to the opposition early. They have to fight and keep it for a while.
"On the second day, we picked up three wickets in the first session. Had we picked two more, it would have been five down," he said.
Ganguly said one or two youngsters in his team might get an opportunity in the second Test and the three one-dayers.
"We have had a thought about it. There are a couple of youngsters in the team, we need to give them an opportunity. We have not spoken about it but there is a possibility," he said.
