Coach Sarwar Imran and captain Anamul Haque said yesterday that the Bangladesh Under-19 team are ready to achieve something big in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 to be held in Brisbane, Australia in August.
They expressed their optimism despite the team’s recent debacle in the Asia Cup in Malaysia while talking at an official press conference at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday prior to the departure of the team for Australia tonight.
“I believe this team has the potential to do something big in the tournament. We have to win at least two games if we want to qualify for the Cup competition and I have faith in my boys that they are capable of beating Sri Lanka and South Africa,” hoped Imran, who has been tasked with the care of the team till the World Cup after its failure in the Asia Cup, where they were eliminated by Afghanistan and Sri Lanka during the group stage.
Anamul, the wicketkeeper-batsman who was brought to the junior side and made captain for the mega event while the board made major changes in the aftermath of the Asia Cup, echoed the sentiment.
“It’s a full strength team as some of our major bowlers returned to the squad after recovering from injuries. There are still some minor injuries but I hope everything will be okay before the start of the tournament proper. We are now really confident with this team,” said a confident Anamul.
Bangladesh have been placed in Group D along with Sri Lanka, South Africa and Namibia in the 16-team competition and play two unofficial (against Papua New Guinea on August 1 and West Indies on August 3) and as many official practice matches (against Scotland on August 7 and South Africa on August 8) before the tournament proper.
Bangladesh will play their first group match against Sri Lanka on August 11, followed by encounters with South Africa on August 12 and Namibia on August 16.
Skipper Anamul said that they are looking forward to playing in the main competition where Bangladesh had qualified twice previously. “It is possible to play in the main competition if we can play as per our potential. It is nice that we have got four practice games before the tournament proper which will help us acclimatise to the conditions,” said Anamul.
This team has been preparing for the last year and a half but many think the lack of match practice could be an issue. Coach Imran however dismissed the notion saying that this team has no deficiency in preparation.
“I got four weeks to prepare the team and I am hopeful that this team will perform well in Australia. Under the guidance of (Zafrul) Ehsan this team has been preparing for the last year and a half and I had the experience of working with some of the boys at different times, so I have faith in the boys,” said Imran.
“Our main challenge would be to acclimatise ourselves with the Australian conditions as early as possible. It is nice that we are going early and that we are able to play some practice matches before the tournament proper. I think match-practice will not be an issue as we played some practice matches at home,” he added.
SQUAD
Anamul Haque (captain), Quazi Nurul Hasan (vice-captain), Asif Ahmed, Soumya Sarkar, Salman Hossain, Al Amin, Nur Hossain, Musaddek Hossain, Nayem Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Abu Jayed Chowdhury, Taskin Ahmed, Dewan Shabbir Ahmed, Abu Haider and Litton Kumar Das.
-With The Daily Star input
