Reset time for Tigresses
The Bangladesh women's team made a quiet return to the country on March 4 after their unremarkable campaign at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. The Salma Khatun-led side failed to register a single win in the mega event, losing all four of their group encounters.
Usually, after the end of big events like a World Cup, cricket boards think about bringing in some changes and start a new cycle. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) may also be bringing in some changes for in women's side, whose next assignment is the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier to be held in Sri Lanka in July this year. The Tigresses will be one of the 10 teams fighting for a spot in the top three to ensure their ticket for the World Cup to be held in New Zealand.
To start with, the BCB may be thinking of creating a coaching staff that has a mix of foreign and local coaches.
"We are thinking of forming a coaching staff that has a blend of foreign and local coaches," BCB Director and Chairman of the women's wing Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel told The Daily Star yesterday.
Nadel also said the BCB has made plans to increase the pay-scale of the women's side by a considerable amount.
"There is one good news for the women' side. In the last board meeting, there was a decision on increasing facilities for the girls. We had already increased their TA and DA (travel allowance and daily allowance) last time but it was nothing noteworthy. However, now we are trying to make significant increments in their international match fees. We are also considering improving their hotel arrangements, their food and nutrition and increasing little amounts in every department that has financial matters involved," said Nadel.
One other concern for the women's side has been their lack of international matches against top-tier teams like Australia, New Zealand and England. Even Salma stressed on playing against top-ranked sides regularly after their T20 World Cup campaign ended bleakly.
That may still take some time to come true, but as Nadel said, the BCB will not be waiting around for the likes of Australia, England and New Zealand and will instead be trying to arrange series against sub-continent teams.
While the BCB are mulling a few changes, Salma and Co, who are now in their respective hometowns, have already started practising on their own before the upcoming women's NCL in Cox's Bazar from March 26.
"Everyone is practising individually. We came from Australia and took rest for two or three days and then we started practising," said Salma yesterday.
Meanwhile, when asked about their failure in the T20 World Cup, especially the narrow loss against New Zealand, Salma mentioned that it had something to do with the difference in approach.
"They are a very experienced side. I think how they approached the game was very important. We also had a good approach and that is why we could restrict them to a low total. We also did not bat well and it was mainly because of the approach they had due to the experience. They have players who already played 90 or even 100 matches but we don't have any players with that much experience," explained Salma.
Team manager Javed Omar said the mental set-up and lack of planning during matches made the difference.
"It was the mental set-up -- a belief that we can win -- that was lacking. Another thing is the lack of a plan. I think there were no plans in batting, like we will have to make this many runs in the first six overs, we will bat like this in the middle and then we will have to make this many runs in the last four overs. I think this is what was lacking," said Javed.
It is clear that there are a lot of areas that the Tigresses need to improve, but with the right plan from team management and the right back-up from the BCB, a more improved side could be seen in the upcoming challenges.
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