Women going straight back to work
It is our request to you people is that the more you give us coverage, the more we can go further. Bangladesh women’s emerging team went to South Africa but it did not create as much buzz as it would have been in case of men’s A team or under-19 team.
Rumana Ahmed
BANGLADESH cricketer
Having concluded their tour of South Africa, Bangladesh’s women cricketers will now turn their focus to their next challenge -- qualifying for the Women’s T20 World Cup slated for March 2020.
The A team players were accompanied by national cricketers on their recent tour to South Africa for a three-match one-day and three-match T20 series with South Africa’s Emerging Team. The contingent returned to Dhaka on Tuesday.
They will now start preparing for the qualifying rounds of the Women’s T20 World Cup with hopes of getting a ticket to the mega-event. According to Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) women’s cricket wing development manager, Nazmul Abedin Fahim, the girls will start training from today.
“The qualification rounds for the T20 World Cup will begin from September 27. Bangladesh need to earn their spot to feature in the T20 World Cup. We will go to Scotland in September to play the qualification round but before that we will have a 10-day preparation camp in the Netherlands. We will play four practice matches in Netherlands before going to Scotland for the preparation camp,” said Nazmul.
Nazmul added that the final 14-member squad for the qualifiers had not been confirmed, so all the players would undergo training.
“Before this, both the national team and the A team players went to South Africa. There, the A team players played their scheduled matches while the other players trained. Now all the players are here and they will have a 4-5 day training session, starting from tomorrow [today]. There is a gym session and a nets session and they will also play two practice matches at BKSP against a Dhaka Metro under-16 team.
Nazmul was also hopeful that the team would be announced before the end of the week.
“We have one or two fitness concerns. After the fitness tests tomorrow [Thursday], we can confirm the team that will go to play the qualifiers. Hopefully by tomorrow we will know who will feature in the 14-member team and maybe we can announce the squad the day after tomorrow [Friday].”
The women’s team had managed to win two one-day matches but they lost all three T20 matches against the South Africans. However, Nazmul said that despite the results, it was good preparation for the girls, especially for the ones who do not get international exposure for the national side. He believed that giving the chance to many new faces on the tour would help the Tigresses in their upcoming fixtures.