'BD A debacle a turning point'

Bangladesh A are yet to find any solace on their tour of England which has seen them lose all six one-day games played so far. Having lost the five practice matches against counties leading up to the three-match one-day series against counterparts England Lions, they were thrashed by 202 runs in the first of those at Bristol on Tuesday.
With a number of national players in the side, the failures of this tour stand as a bad omen for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where the players will face similarly alien conditions.
Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen sees the current tour as a wake-up call and plans to address this issue through different strategies in the coming months. These include sending the national players to play domestic cricket abroad and organising a pre-world cup camp in Australia.
“I have been really searching for opportunities for the guys to play in Australia and New Zealand in the summers. For example, Tamim [Iqbal] might be going to Wellington. I have had interest in another team in New Zealand for Shakib [Al Hasan]. It would be great to get Nasir [Hossain] a team to play for in the Big Bash [League].
“I know a lot of people in Australia, and I have been contacting a few coaches and basically looking for playing opportunities for them [the Bangladesh players]. We could have a camp there. I am also looking for a window to send the A team there,” Jurgensen said.
However, with the national team booked for most of next year, finding a window to send them abroad would be difficult. The other question of course would be the willingness of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to spend the requisite amount for such a camp.
“What's really important is to expose these players to those conditions at least six months before the Cup. While this tour may be disappointing, I feel that the BCB should arrange such A tours at least once a year. It tests the players in many ways,” said Jurgensen.
The other aspect of the preparation involves playing on the right wickets. There was even talk in the board of bringing soil from Brisbane to help the players get accustomed to the pitches they will encounter.
Stating an instance of how wicket-simulation helped, the Australian said: “It's something that we did before we went to Sri Lanka. I requested Gamini [Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium curator Gamini de Silva] during the BPL to keep a set of wickets untouched because I wanted grass on them, and maybe it did work out for [the tour of] Sri Lanka.”
Bangladesh A have two more games to go in what has been a disappointing tour of England so far. Whatever the final result may be, the tour has given the team management plenty of food for thought regarding preparations for the world cup. As Jurgensen himself put it, “The results of the tour could be a real turning point about how we approach our preparations for the 2015 World Cup. It's important that players learn from these conditions.”