Bangladesh's historic Test victory in Sri Lanka should encourage more teams to find space in their schedules to play the fast-improving minnows, according to the head of the country's cricket board. In their 100th Test, Bangladesh beat Rangana Herath's men by four wickets in Colombo on Sunday — their first victory away from home against top-class opponents. Bangladesh's only other victories on foreign soil since gaining Test status in 2000 came against fellow strugglers Zimbabwe, and a West Indies side, which had been weakened by a strike among their main players. Sunday's win has stoked hopes that Bangladesh are now finally becoming a force to be reckoned with after they beat England for the first time in a five-day match in October. Their lack of success has been one of the reasons major cricketing nations have been reluctant to schedule matches against Bangladesh, with last month's one-off Test in Hyderabad their first ever match in India. Their only tour of Australia was also way back in 2003, but Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan told reporters that the victory in Colombo could mark a sea-change in attitudes and that more matches with Test teams were already being penciled in. "There is no doubt that every team will show their keen interest to play with us, way more than it has been in the past," Hassan said late Monday. "They will field their full strength team against us. All the teams will see Bangladesh in a different way. We have done our groundwork for the next one year, what and how we need to do things. Actually, we will play 10 Test matches within this period. We've never got to play so many Tests in the past in one calendar year because the big teams did not take Bangladesh seriously," he said. Bangladesh normally play around six Tests a year. Australia offers women big pay rise in bid to end row Cricket Australia offered to more than double elite women players' pay and also promised an increase for the men in a bid to end an impasse over money Tuesday. The body said the package meant women had the opportunity to pursue a fully professional career at both international and domestic levels, while men would continue to be among the country's best paid sport stars. CA chief James Sutherland said the proposed five-year Memorandum of Understanding, put forward as negotiations continue before the current deal expires at the end of June, had "gender equity at its heart". But the Australian cricketers Association (ACA), the players union, said the offer needed closer scrutiny. "We are pleased that the Australian cricketers Association agrees with us that women, for the first time, should be part of the MOU, and we have proposed a financial model that has gender equity at its heart," Sutherland said. "Under the proposal, women will receive an immediate average pay increase of more than 125 percent." This would see international women cricketers' pay jump from A$79,000 ($60,885) to A$179,000 as of July 1 this year, with an expectation that it will rise to A$210,000 by 2021. CA said total potential remuneration for all players, including guaranteed and performance elements, would go up from A$311 million over the course of the current MOU (2012-17) to A$419m over the next five-year period, an increase of 35 percent. Men who represent Australia at international level would see their average yearly retainer rise to A$816,000 by 2021/22. With match fees and performance bonuses, the expected average income for these players — including Big Bash League Twenty20 payments — would soar 25 percent to A$1.45m by 2021/2022, said Sutherland. "We have placed the emphasis on increasing the guaranteed amount that the men will receive, rather than rely on any projected increase in revenue," he added. "This is a landmark agreement. We are now looking forward to sitting down with the ACA to work through the details and we are confident we will be able to announce a completed agreement before June 30."
