Bangladesh national cricket team’s Sri Lankan coach Chandika Hathurusinghe on Tuesday feared that it will be difficult for his charges to keep their focus in the forthcoming series due to long absence from international cricket. Bangladesh played their last Test match against South Africa in August 2015 while they played their last ODI series against Zimbabwe in November 2015.
When most of the teams are currently busy with their international commitment, the Tigers are without any competitive fixture since the ICC World Twenty20 in April.
‘It’s not ideal and easy as well,’ Hathurusinghe said on Tuesday as he took the command of Tigers’ training camp ahead of their home series against England. ‘[But] what can you do if you don’t have matches?
‘We are trying to play practice according to our plans, like bring them [the players] into a match conditions, play some matches at the end of the practice season, we take it as a positive.
‘Because we have time in our hand we can prepare very well, but it’s not like playing matches.
‘Ideally the players like to play games and keep their confidence going. When you start a new series, it’s a little bit tensed at the start unless you get into the series.
‘That’s the disadvantage that we might have because we are playing after a long time but we can’t control about this now.’
Bangladesh’s absence from international cricket should be prolonged further if England decide to skip their forthcoming series in October because of security concern.
But the coach was not losing his sleep for the series as he said this is not entirely on Bangladesh’s hand.
‘The situation is not ideal but we can’t do anything about it,’ said the Sri Lankan. ‘That’s what I told the boys as well. What we can do is try to be prepared with our ability and take the time that we have in our hands as an advantage and not as a disadvantage.’
Bangladesh began their preparation on July 20 under the supervision of local coaches as Tigers foreign staffs were unavailable during the beginning as they were concerned with the security conditions.
Hathurusinghe arrived on August 7 to take up his responsibilities while other foreign staff started returning from August 5 through the arrival of Richard Halsall while trainer Mario Villavarayan followed him the next day.
Hathurusinghe admitted that they were observing country’s security situation closely that looked vulnerable after the terror attack in Gulshan Café on June 1, killing 22 people, mostly foreigners.
‘We took some time to come but we were lucky that we had good people around us to start the camp,’ said Hathurusinghe.
‘So we are into our plan and we are starting the skills [soon],’ said Hathurusinghe.
‘We already started fielding, just doing some throwing work load, getting some miles into our shoulders to do some throwing and then getting into pace next week.
‘On August 20 we will start batting and bowling and then we play a few matches before Eid and probably play a few BCL matches before England arrive,’ he said.
-With New Age input
