Ian Pont, the newly recruited English coach for the pace bowlers of the Bangladesh national cricket team, aims to improve control and variation as he started working with the speedsters for the fist time at the Mirpur indoor stadium on Sunday.
Pont, who worked as a fast bowling coach of his former county club Essex where he helped South Africa’s Dale Steyn become world number one pace bowler, saw a lot of potential among the Tigers.
‘Today was a really good session as for the first time I saw the guys from close. There are a lot of talented players in this squad and they need developing,’ Pont told reporters after the end of the morning session.
‘Initial plan is to do some basic stuff, the skill level is good and part of my job is to improve the skill so that they can go onto the pitch and perform,’ Pont said.
‘In coaching language, half of the battle is won as long as the players are open minded and keen to learn, the second half is providing them with good information I have got for them, ’ he said.
‘I am going do it slowly, step by step, and I am going to make sure I don’t leave anyone behind, including the new players coming into the squad. I want them all to understand what we are trying to do with accuracy and in time we can make a difference.
‘We can show them video footage as sometimes action speaks a thousand words,’ Pont said.
Regarding the upcoming series against the New Zealand the coach said he would emphasise on control and variation.
‘There are some guys who are capable of playing on the world stage, as the New Zealand tour is very close, we won’t be having enough time to do anything with speed but I will be looking at control and variation,’
Bangladesh skipper Masharafee bin Murtaza, who will lead the bowling attack, was impressed by the new coach.
‘He looks good and impressed me,’ said the captain.
‘We had to do it al at indoor today as it was raining. So he focused on pitching the ball in the right direction.
When we will be bowling outdoor he will be focussing on improving our strength so that we can ball faster and if we can take the lesson I am sure we will be performing better,’ Mashrafee told reporters.
