LAST BANGLADESH DIARY

Mirpur: England A 194 (49.4 overs; M Prior 51, W Jefferson 45, Mahamudullah Riad 3-27, Manjurul Islam 3-38) Bangladesh A 198-5 (44.5 overs; Nasimuddin 42, Tushar Imran 34). Bangladesh won by 5 wkts.

March 11: England put in a moderate farewell performance in Dhaka with the one-day series already won and went out for a final team meal in the evening before disappearing to the airport for their night flight back to Heathrow. As Peter Moores said, these players will never play together as a team again, as with every A tour, and the split-up is quite an occasion for such a close-knit group.

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Stuart Broad’s omission, by rota really, made a difference because England’s seam attack was deprived of some zip. His new-ball partner Graham Onions had had an excellent tour, though less effective in one-dayers. The Bangladeshis changed their tactics and reverted to a phalanx of spinners, with an ability to exert pressure when two early wickets were taken.

Will Jefferson continued his tactic of reaching forward a long way to launch booming drives to score 45 off 53 balls, including two sixes. Matt Prior’s 51 made him the tour’s leading run-maker, but when he holed out in the deep, England struggled. Adil Rashid looked like sparking a revival until he was run out in a stop-go call with Tim Bresnan, his Yorkshire team-mate. The total of 194 was not nearly enough, and Bangladesh built a steady momentum to victory, with Nasimuddin again the best.

The feature of the tour for England was the contribution of their four World Cup fringe players – Stuart Broad, Graham Onions, Matt Prior and Mike Yardy, the captain and quite probably a future leader of Sussex. Onions, age 24, was an intriguing selection, having made only 12 first class matches for Durham before his first full season last year. Good athlete, 85mph pace, good prospect.

Moores, a possible future successor to Duncan Fletcher as England coach, could look back on a successful tour. “There’s been a fantastic team spirit, which has helped everybody,” he said. “That’s important because the players will have to fit into other teams. Hopefully some will play for England, and they need to know what a good team feels like, so that they can help create that in other places.”

And my own tour was closed by the interview with Moores, an approachable, thoughtful coach who enjoyed the respect of his players. In the morning, arriving at Mirpur and climbing up to the media centre from the outfield, reminded me of my first day of the first match at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium three weeks ago.

The media stand was a building site on all floors – and still is -- in preparation for India’s visit in May, and I was uncertain how to get to the press box, but I could see a closed gate leading up the terracing from the outfield. A ground official saved me a journey by saying: “No, the gate’s locked – that area is owned by the government.” It sounded as though it would need an act of parliament to get it unlocked. But no, the gate was open from the second day onwards.

Many people asked me what I thought of Bangladesh – country and players. Did I enjoy the trip? Life is probably as exciting as you want it to be, but, to save repetition, answers are due to be published on www.tigercricket.com .