The preliminary camp of the national cricket team for a tri-nation Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe begins today without interim coach Shane Jurgenson and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim.
Jurgenson is currently on leave and is expected to take the charge once the players start their skill training next week while Mushfiq is away with his family after his university examination ended.
He is expected to join the camp on May 22. The camp will also miss former captain Sakib al Hasan, opener Tamim Iqbal, middle-order batsman Mohammad Ashraful at the initial stage.
Sakib and Tamim are now in India to pursue their Indian Premier League career while Asharful is using the unscheduled long gap in the Dhaka Premier League to play in the minor county league in England.
Other notable absentees on the first day will be fielding coach Jason Swift, who is holidaying in England, and physio Vibhav Singh, currently in South Africa to accompany injured paceman Rubel Hossain, who underwent a surgery in Cape Town on Friday.
Fitness trainer Grant Luden will conduct the training for the first few days when primary focus will be on players’ fitness.
‘For the next few days we will just be looking at fitness testing and
fitness-oriented training and nothing else,’
Luden told New Age on Saturday.
Luden observed that the players tend to gain weight they get a long break. Bangladesh played their last international match on March 22 and afterwards the players were busy for barely a week with the Dhaka League.
Most of the players had no serious cricketing activities since the league was abruptly halted on March 28. A few of them had had some matches in the National Cricket League and the National Championship, but others were sitting idle.
‘I know that the players tend to gain weight. Same as last year when the fitness camp started the boys came back not doing much,’ said Luden.
‘I took all that into consideration and had made necessary plans for the training so that it does not become a problem,’ he said.
Preliminary squad
Mushfiqur Rahim, Sakib al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Jahirul Islam, Nazimuddin, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Elias Sunny, Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Junaed Siddique, Naeem Islam, Alok Kapali, Shuvagoto Hom, Farhad Reza, Enamul Haque Jr, Anamul Haque, Abul Hasan, Mominul Hoque, Al Amin, Alauddin Babu, Ziaur Rahman.
-With New Age input
