Kenya had the potential to be a far better team than they are today. I would also say that Kenya actually had the potential to be better than Bangladesh. But just because nobody wanted the African continent to be improved in cricket and also just because cricket was controlled by the mafia, Kenya did not get the test status. Instead, it was given to Bangladesh. And we all know Bangladesh has actually not improved in tests. At least liked as well as they should have. If it was Kenya, I believe the improvement was going to be better. I am not feeling that Bangladesh has not improved in anything. Bangladesh has done very well in the ODI format. Back in test cricket Bangladesh still sucks.
I don't have anything against Bangladesh. My only problem is that back in 1999 (a few weeks after the ODI World Cup), Bangladesh was given the test status and the same was refused for Kenya. And back then, Kenya was a much stronger team. Bangladesh had one remarkable victory in the 1999 World Cup against Pakistan, and that was the excuse for giving them the test status. But a lot of people claimed later that this particular match was fixed. Kenya was consistent until 2003 or so, but once Srinivasan and Pawar got the power they destroyed smaller teams like Kenya.
That was the start of success for Bangladesh. But I believe Bangladesh actually got things handed to them a little easier. That’s why they are still not good enough in test format. I absolutely love Bangladesh, but to be honest, at that time test status should have gone to Kenya.
The 90s was really dark period in world cricket due to match-fixing, many teams were facing at least some sort of allegations and Pakistan was on top in this regard so there might be some truth to it.
We know how many match-fixing allegations were popping up against the Indian players and some proved to be correct.
Yeah.. it was a very turbulent period. Dawood and his gang were openly fixing matches with tacit approval from the boards. He used to visit the stands at Sharjah cricket stadium, when the matches were in progress and no one would say anything. After a lot of outcry, 2-3 Indian players were handed down suspensions (Jadeja, Azharuddin.etc) for their role in match fixing. But nothing happened to them. After a few years these bans were overturned and the fixers got plum posts within the state cricket boards. It was the small fish like Cronje and Boje who got punished. Cronje even lost his life in a very suspicious accident. A few years later, Bob Woolmer also died under mysterious circumstances.
At that time, some really good players got into this match-fixing problem. The money probably got to them. Both of the names you mentioned, Ajay Jadeja, and Azharuddin, both of them were very important for India. Ajay Jadeja did try to make a comeback. But he was unable to actually do anything meaningful after his ban.
