Micromax ODI CUP, Bangladesh vs New Zealand
Razzak upset at NZ advantage
Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak was none too pleased at giving away the Tigers’ home advantage to New Zealand.
The five-match one-day series begins tomorrow but the visitors from the southern hemisphere had both their practice matches at the BKSP cancelled due to the incessant rain over the last week.
That prompted the New Zealand management to request to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to let them have a full session in the center wicket of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, which they were allowed to do on Saturday.
But obviously that meant the Tigers would not have the advantage that almost every other country has in their own conditions and rightfully, the experienced Razzak voiced his concerns.
“It is good for us that they could not play any practice match and get accustomed with the conditions,” he said while talking to reporters yesterday after training.
“But they practiced in the center wicket which is a slight bit of disadvantage for us,” said Razzak.
It could well be the first time that a visiting cricket nation gets the privilege of center-wicket practice, as reflected in the left-armer’s comments, but to his credit, Razzak took the existing circumstances into account.
“We did not avail this kind of opportunity in any tour. No country gets this kind of a privilege in an away tour.
“But it is all right as they could not get any practice match,” he explained.
But Bangladesh still holds a card or two up their sleeves, one of which is the playing surface that offers slow spin.
“We always do well with the spin attack and as the series is in the sub-continent, and more so in our home ground we will definitely have an advantage,” he said, adding that the team think-tank would put together a spin-heavy attack “to exploit the home conditions.”
Razzak also confirmed that Salahuddin is working as the spin bowling coach. He reiterated that the team is more concerned about its own performance. “We are not concerned about them, rather we are trying to concentrate on executing our own skills,” he said.
As the country’s highest wicket-taker in one-day cricket, Razzak definitely has a lot of expectations on him. It would also be increased as he has not had a great 2010 so far. The man with 144 ODI wickets (ahead of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza who has 142 scalps) has only taken 11 wickets from 14 outings this year.
“We must be able to put the pressure sometimes by giving breakthroughs.
“At times we also need to slow down the run rate, but most importantly we should be able to do the job rather than just saying we will have to do it,” he explained.
