The long run-up to the 2011 World Cup began yesterday with the national cricketers having a long slog in the nets as well as in the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium outfield.
One would be tempted to go the distance and call it the perfect start as Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s men were given a thorough workout, having been divided into four groups for batting, fielding, bowling and a stint at the gym. Each group were trained for two hours each and when the batsmen, the breed who are never willing to leave the nets, are asked to bat for two hours instead of the usual 30 minutes, they would highly appreciate the new system of training.
Tamim Iqbal, predictably, came out in praise of the long batting sessions and the overall training after the left-handed opener completing his two-hour stint at the nets outside the stadium.
“I believe it was an excellent batting session that lasted more than two hours. It’s a new system and it hasn’t happened before,” said Tamim, repeating the mantra that more the batsmen bat, the better they will become.
“I think we can give a good performance in the New Zealand series if we continue to train in this manner. Today (Sunday) we had three bowling machines and we could play all kinds of shots. It’s a lot of batting but it wasn’t a lot of hard work,” said the man who is among the 16 nominated cricketers vying for the ICC Test Player of the Year.
“We used to get less time in the past but now we have some time in our hand and Jamie [Siddons] has planned that every player should get individual attention from him.
“In addition, we now have a fielding coach and a bowling coach is on the way, so I think it is a positive sign,” said Tamim, who was hopeful of returning before the New Zealand series after a checkup on his wrist in Australia.
Tamim’s captain Mashrafe pointed out that the training camp is three weeks long and the Tigers have not done well in the field for quite a long time too. But the start has been good and according to Mashrafe, if this amount of hard work continues, the Tigers could improve ahead of the five-match one-day series against the Black Caps.
“I quite liked the first day’s work but a lot of it is left, in fact three weeks so I hope it continues like this,” said Mashrafe.
The entire idea of individual skill improvement comes from the head coach and he reiterated his plan.
“I always wanted to put emphasis on this kind of training as it gives me opportunity to work with them individually for a longer span of time, as the preparation for the series is still more than a month away,” said Siddons.
