Bangladesh head coach Shane Jurgensen on Sunday said that he was planning beyond the immediate future as he revealed his desire of arranging a camp in Australia ahead of the 2015 ICC World Cup down under. The 37-year old Australian coach, while talking to reporters during the Bangladesh Cricket League game between Walton Central Zone and Islami Bank East Zone at BKSP 2, said that he was trying to set up a camp in his country to prepare the Tigers for the 50-over World Cup.
‘I have been in talks with the [Bangladesh Cricket] board for the last three or four months about organising a camp in Australia,’ said Jurgensen adding that, ‘I am continuing to chip in on it. We need a camp like this to help our players get accustomed to their conditions before the World Cup. It will help them a lot.’
Jurgensen, who returned to Bangladesh on Saturday after a vacation, said that the camp will most likely be staged in September this year, right after the Tigers’ tour of the West Indies in July-September.
‘I want to organise it in September, just after we come back from the West Indies series. The West Indies tour will be over by the 10th [of September] so we are planning to go a week later,’ he said.
‘If we can organise something like a two-week camp over there it will help us a lot.’
Jurgensen insisted that the camp can prove to be beneficial for the up-and-coming pace bowlers after some of them impressed him in recent times.
‘There are a lot of promising pacers in the domestic circuit that I have my eyes on. And I really want to start a pace-bowling programme if the budget permits. These players, if we can take them to Australia, and make them stay for two weeks over there and let them play a few matches over there then it will be great for them,’ he said.
‘Because the wickets over there have swing, it bounces and they will notice that and learn a lot. They’ll say, “Oh, it’s swinging”, and then try and use those conditions.
‘There is Mohammed Shaheed, Shuvashis [Roy], Robiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed and Dewan Sabbir; they are all really promising.’
Jurgensen went on to stress the importance of the franchise-based
first-class competition, the Bangladesh Cricket League, and that too right before the home series against Sri Lanka.
‘If this tournament would not have happened, then I would have just chosen 24 players and trained them at Mirpur, which would not have matched the competition and training that these players are facing here,’ he said.
‘Domestic cricket is very important. The BCL was suddenly brought up. It would have been better had the players been given time to prepare for the tournament but I am glad that it’s happening.
‘It’s better than not having a tournament at all. It’s through these tournaments that we can get the next group of players in line.
‘This is the only way. So these domestic tournaments should take place a lot more regularly. All the top players are playing so that’s good too.’
Jurgensen concluded by saying that the preparation camp for the Sri Lanka series will begin on January 23.
-With New Age input
