BCB president hints little change in Tigers’ World Cup squad

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan sees hardly any change in the country’s World Cup squad, terming the current side as a ‘settled unit’ which could give any team of the world a tough fight.

Tigers’ 15-member World Cup squad is expected to be named in the third week of April.

“We have the ability to give any team a tough fight,” Nazmul said in a sports programme in the city today. “We have faith on our team. The team is above all okay. There is hardly any chance that we might bring about any change. It’s a settled unit at the moment.”

Bangladesh’s last tour in New Zealand however was a disappointing one as they lost the ODI and Test series without much resistance.

But Nazmul was unfazed by the performance, saying the New Zealand’s condition was tougher for the team who had to play there literally without any good practice match as they were busy with playing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

“Shakib Al Hasan was not in the team because of his injury. Tamim, Mushfiqur, Shakib, Mahmudullah need to score runs if we want to fight and win. But the New Zealand condition was a tougher one, there was swing, bounce and the weather was not favourable for us,” he said. “Still in almost every match we put up 200 plus score even without Shakib. So I believe the players have the ability to do better than what they showed in New Zealand.”

Nazmul also insisted on increasing the number of grounds in Dhaka in a bid to give the clubs and players the opportunity to have regular practices.

“Let alone the countries like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, even if you visit Sri Lanka, you will see only Colombo has got eight stadiums and three stadiums to host Test matches. Whereas we have just one stadium in Dhaka, so we need to built more playing grounds in the city,” he revealed.

The BCB boss also thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to give the BCB and country’s sports an outright support and assistance.

“We have good success in female cricket who won the Asia Cup. Male cricket team is also playing well as we moved into the semifinal of ICC Champions Trophy, sealed a Quarterfinal berth in 2015 World Cup. Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is instrumental behind our success. She is giving us outright support when we need it,” he concluded.