BCB looks to future prospects
Bangladesh returned last Thursday after an abysmal Sri Lanka tour, where the Tigers were whitewashed in a three-match ODI series. Now there remains a gap of about three months -- if the planned tri-series against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in September does not pan out -- until the Tigers return to international action with a tour of India, where a three-match T20I and a two-match Test series will begin on November 3.
However, in the meantime, the Bangladesh players will not be far away from cricket or cricketing activities as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) plan on conducting a conditioning camp with the Tigers' upcoming series in mind.
Chief selector Minhajul Abedin told The Daily Star yesterday that the BCB will have a detailed discussion regarding the conditioning camp in a meeting today.
"We hope to start a conditioning camp after Eid. The likely date for the conditioning camp is August 18. There is a series with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in September. We also have a number of T20s and Test matches ahead of us and so we will be doing a conditioning camp on a large scale featuring both the Test and T20 players. We will have a detailed discussion regarding this matter in a meeting tomorrow [today]." said Minhajul.
The Tigers need to regroup after a string of undesirable performances which began with a defeat to Pakistan in the last match of the World Cup -- where the Tigers finished eighth -- to the three-nil thumping by Sri Lanka in Colombo. According to Bangladesh's ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, one way to turn things around is to give the players an appropriate amount of rest when needed and also grant opportunities to new faces to strengthen the squad.
However, according to Minhajul, Bangladesh are still a long way from being able to afford the luxury of rotating 3-4 key players at one go.
"In reality such a rotation is not possible. What we can afford is to rotate a maximum of 1-2 players. But the way players are involved in the high performance and A team matches, I think we can afford such luxury in the future when we have a number of prospects. But at this time, we cannot afford the luxury of such massive rotation," he explained.
Simon Helmot, head coach of Bangladesh's High Performance programme, agreed with Shakib's ideology. Simon, who will be managing Bangladesh's HP team in their upcoming series against a visiting Sri Lanka high performance team which begins on August 16, said that it is high time for Bangladesh to give opportunities to new prospects.
"I 100 per cent concur with Shakib's comments that we might need ways and strategies to give players who deserve it opportunities, sooner rather than later. And that can be through a number of ways. Some players are out of form so we need to change those players or we can rest them also. So, we need to discuss this as coaches, selectors and cricket board. We could even fast track some of the talents you are watching here today."
Simon also mentioned how the nurturing process has led to the discovery of a few talents like Shadman Islam, Abu Jayed Rahi, Yasir Ali and Mohammad Saifuddin, who emerged through the system while adding that this needs to be done more vigorously.
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