Saturday, 10 March 2007

Bashar is Happy with World Cup Preparation of Bangladesh

Bangladesh completed a near perfect preparation for their world cup challenge. The Tigers are aiming a second round berth ahead of either Sri Lanka or India. After winning the ICC tri-series involving Bermuda and Canada at Antigua at a canter, Bangladesh made the full utilization of the two warm up matches. In the first warm up match against New Zealand, they silenced their critics by an amazing two wicket win. Bangladesh showed impressive Kiwis. Bangladesh comfortably outplayed Scotland in the second and final warm up match by 7 wickets.

With everything going on according to plan, Bangladesh Captain, Habibul Bashar expressed his satisfaction about the overall preparation of his team ahead of the gala event. He repeated his optimism to reach second round while talking to the media after the second warm up match against Scotland.


“I have to say I am very satisfied with our preparation. We bowled and fielded well in both warm up matches and the batting has been impressive throughout. We did lose two early wickets in the second match but once again the middle-order never allowed any pressure to set in” said Bashar who is undoubtedly the most succesful captain of Bangladesh cricket history.

He further added “Everyone is in touch and that gives me a lot of confidence. The World Cup matches will be a different ball game but if we can continue doing what we are doing at the moment then we can be a pretty tough opposition for any team”.

According to Bashar, the victory against New Zealand was a morale booster for the team as it was their first match against a top quality team after the ICC champions trophy. "Before we came here for the World Cup nobody gave us a chance. That's fine for people to say, but we are looking at getting to the second round. With Tamim Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza playing so well, this is a great boost for the World Cup. Their contributions were brilliant. We will do one thing, that is play positive cricket," said confident looking Bashar.


Bangladesh is now anxiously waiting to know the injury status of Aftab Ahmed, one of their batting mainstream. He suffered an apparent muscle injury in the waist while batting in the second warm up match and had to leave the field on streture.

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