'Tigers have more fast bowlers now'
In November 2008 during the Bangladesh tour of South Africa, the then national bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake had showered praise on pacer Rubel Hossain when asked who would take up the baton after Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
"He (Rubel) is an amazing talent. A rare bowler who can bowl at 140kmph and above," the former Sri Lanka paceman told reporters in Kimberley, adding: "he is a very exciting talent and one of the guys I am very, very keen to see progress."
Rubel however is yet to live up to Champaka's expectations since he made his Test debut against West Indies in July 2009, as his 24 Tests so far have yielded just 32 wickets at an average of 77.93.
The 27-year old right-arm fast bowler has been included in the 15-member Test squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa but his place is not guaranteed in the playing eleven.
It is not certain whether the failed prophecy about Rubel still plays in his mind but the Sri Lankan, who has now returned with a different assignment of working with budding pacers in the High Performance Squad and age level cricket, was not ready to single out any young bowler under his guidance when talking to reporters yesterday at Mirpur.
"I don't want to mention any names because others will get upset. They are all young but there are some impressive bowlers there as well and if they keep working hard they will improve," Champaka said when asked about special bowlers.
It is difficult to predict the extent to which Bangladesh's pace performance will improve this time on South Africa's pace-friendly pitches as opposed to the meagre returns in 2008, but there is no doubt that Bangladesh's pace bowling department has made a lot of progress and the team management has also been encouraging the growth of pace stocks.
Champaka echoed that outlook.
"You have more fast bowlers than before [in the national set-up] so they [the young bowlers] are all excited. The only way is to work hard and improve. But they'll have to keep performing in domestic cricket and whenever they get chances in international cricket or in the U-19 or High Performance team," he said.
During that tour in 2008, Champaka also talked about the need for sporting wickets and competitive first-class cricket in developing fast bowling talent, but unfortunately the game's governing body are yet to make significant progress in those aspects.
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