Coming into Bangladesh’s fourth World Cup, I have become nostalgic recalling the days when we worked so hard to qualify for the first time. You all know about the 1997 ICC trophy which gave us the foundation where Bangladesh cricket stands now. It was a big challenge for us and I am thankful to my Allah that we won the challenge. We were confident that we will do it as we had a nicely balanced squad and a very good preparation to back us. After winning the ICC championship the only goal ahead of us was the World Cup. Two years of intense training under his supervision paid us a rich dividend. I still remember days when we stayed at the BKSP. We were allowed to visit home only on Friday and the day when we had league matches. Due to long stay at the BKSP a bond was created between the players and that proved to be very fruitful during the World Cup. Everybody was determined to do something though in end it was an average performance from our part in our first World Cup match. I can still remember the match against Pakistan. We were defending 223 runs and somehow we all knew that this total will be hard to make against us .This kind feelings often change the course of a game I guess. This single win changed our destiny and no longer needed us to go through the tough qualifying route after winning the Test status. As an obvious outcome we are now one of the co-hosts and are going to play our fourth World Cup forcing every opponent to respect us. I have a feeling that Bangladesh will do well. The reason I am saying this is because more or less the same team is playing around for more than three years and they have started to understand each other much better now, pretty similar situation we had before we had our first World Cup. We had a strong build up before our first World Cup in the warm-up matches and I am seeing the same situation now. This time we played some extraordinary cricket against the New Zealand and the Zimbabwe. I don’t think reaching semi-final would be any miracle for us. However, the primary focus should be overcoming the group stage and play the quarter-final. I like to believe we are capable of beating any team as we have a very strong batting line-up and a very capable spin unit which I think will play a vital role in the sub-continent. I certainly don’t underestimate the fast bowlers as the trio included in the squad are also skilled to deliver when it is necessary. They proved for more than once. Good luck Bangladesh.
—Khaled Mahmud, former national captain (2003-04)
