0Ring of Steel Brings Tear to the Eye

It was, in many ways, reas­sur­ing to see the mil­it­ary might of Bangladesh and the show of force they put on ahead of the start of the ODI series start­ing tomor­row (Fri­day).

Pic­tures and video clips cer­tainly show they mean busi­ness. I heard one radio com­ment­at­or liken the secur­ity to that you would see for a trip by Barack Obama.

And if you are an Eng­land play­er or fan sit­ting and singing in the stands for the three matches I sus­pect you will wel­come the ‘ring of steel’.

But how sad it has come to this. I must admit to being a bit of an ideal­ist and have always seen crick­et as tran­scend­ing world polit­ics and glob­al affairs. I know that’s a simplist­ic approach to take – but as a massive crick­et fan – all I want to do is go into a sta­di­um, drink a few beers and watch some good crick­et – no mat­ter who is playing.

Surely that’s not too much to ask!