KP in da Desh

A friend told me yesterday that he was having a net with some friends at Lord's a few weeks ago when who should rock up in the adjacent net but Kevin Pietersen and Graham Gooch.

Apparently, Pietersen was batting beautifully and seemed to be in perfect balance as he went through his routine. Then again, Gooch wasn't bowling left-arm spin at him. Perhaps he should have got John Childs, the former Essex tweaker, to help out.

What struck my friend, though, was not so much the beauty of Pietersen's practice, but a term he used to describe the upcoming tour. "So are ya going to da Desh then, boet," Pietersen said, in his finest Home Counties accent (actually, he may not have said "boet").

Does anyone use Desh to describe Bangladesh? I think it just means "land" in various Indian languages and really shouldn't be any different to using Oz for Australia or Windies for the West Indies, but it struck my friend, and me, as an odd slang term and almost disrespectful.

I'm sure Pietersen meant no disrespect and I don't intend to have a pop at him for a private conversation, I'm just interested in whether it is a common abbreviation. Do Bangladeshi cricket fans shout "come on the Desh"? If anyone can educate me, I'd be grateful.