Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is planning to send the national team to South Africa to play a four-day practice match as part of their preparation for the Zimbabwe tour in July-August.
BCB’s technical committee in its meeting yesterday recommended the stopover in South Africa for a four-day practice match as they believed that it would help the Tigers get reacquainted with the longer form.
During the month-long tour, Shakib Al Hasan’s men will play one Test and five one-day internationals against Zimbabwe, who will end their self-imposed Test exile with the match against the Tigers.
“The Bangladesh team is likely to go to South Africa on July 19 to play a four-day match against South Africa’s High Performance unit players. The committee recommended the match as we believe it will be helpful for our players who will return to Test cricket after a long gap,” said BCB’s director and chairman of the technical committee Enayet Hossain Siraj after the meeting.
Siraj also informed that they are planning to arrange one four-day and three limited-over practice matches at home.
“The practice matches will be held between the national team and the Bangladesh A team. We will announce the 15-member final squad for the Zimbabwe tour by the first week of the next month,” said Siraj.
The national players are now doing their fitness training under the guidance of trainer Grant Luden, and they will go to Cox’s Bazar on June 26 where the conditioning camp will finish on June 30.
When asked who they have in mind to conduct the skill training after the conditioning camp, Siraj said that they have decided to give Imran Sarwar the responsibility until the head coach is appointed.
“Imran will do the job and we will also involve the other local coaches. We are hopeful that we will appoint the head coach and other supporting staffs in time,” hoped Siraj.
BCB is now waiting for confirmation from Australian Stuart Law, who is all set to become the Tigers new head coach if everything goes smoothly.
-With The Daily Star input
