A little slice of South Africa in Bogura
The Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogura, one of five purpose-built cricket grounds established in the lead-up to the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, has hardly been buzzing with cricketing activity as the venue has not hosted an international match since December 2006. It is only when first-class matches take place or some local programmes are held that some noise is heard from the venue.
Since December 7, some life returned to the ground with the Bangladesh Under-19 cricketers fine-tuning their skills ahead of the ICC Under-19 World Cup to be held in South Africa from January 17 next year. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) sent the Young Tigers to Bogura with the aim of providing the players a slight taste of South African conditions because recently the grassy surface has aided the pacers, offering seam movement and bounce.
“We came here for our last camp, aiming to adjust to South African conditions. So far, the condition of the Bogura wicket is good. It has grass and bounce. We will return to Dhaka on December 26 and we are hopeful that we can take maximum advantage of these conditions,” said team manager Sajal Chowdhury, adding that they are expected to fly to South Africa on January 3.
Captain Akbar Ali thanked the board for arranging the camp in Bogura. “We have been playing good cricket for the last year. This is our last camp in Bogura before the World Cup. Bogura’s wicket is batter for pace bowling than other pitches in the country. The board has taken a good decision to send the team here as we are expecting similar conditions in South Africa. We are trying to take maximum advantage of these conditions and fix the problems we had seen in the last three-four series,” said Akbar.
Coach Naveed Nawaz said: “We have had good preparation. 2019 has been a brilliant year for us. We have played nearly 23 games in the last year and had a lot of success. We have a strong team and our first goal is to reach the knockout stage. Therefore, we will focus match by match. We don’t want to put pressure on our boys; instead, we are telling them to play as a team and perform to their best.
“During this time, we played in New Zealand and England, where conditions were quite similar to South Africa. The South African wickets will be drier and bouncier than local Bangladeshi wickets. We are going in South Africa seven days early, and hopefully we will have a good tournament,” he added.
Bangladesh were drafted in Group C along with Pakistan, Scotland and Zimbabwe in the 16-nation tournament and will take on Zimbabwe on January 18 in their opening match. Before that, they will play a total of four warm-up matches including two official games against Australia and New Zealand.
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