‘Current Bangla team can win WC’
LUCKNOW: Habibul Bashar, one of the most successful captains of Bangladesh, has a dream to see his country win the World Cup of any format of the game. And he finds the current team has the passion to realize this dream.
Known for his impulsive style of stroke-play, which made him darling of all in Bangladesh as genuine Test player in the past, Bashar knows what it takes to be on top and feels that upcoming Twenty20 World Cup in Australia is a good opportunity for the side to redeem confidence.
“We are on target and preparing well for the October-November event next year. Bangladesh cricket has been doing well in the shorter formats of play and I would like to see my team lifting the trophy in Australia,” said Bashar, who is here as manager of the Bangladesh Under-23 side, which lost the five-match ODI series to home side 1-3 on Friday.
“It’s not going to be an easy task as Team India as well as Australia are the big guns in the format, but still we have a chance to beat all kind of rivals. During the last few years, the Bangladeshi side has become a force to reckon with, but still we need consistency,” Bashar, 47, said.
“Only a consistent showing makes you strong and we are still searching for some good pacers, who could win the matches for us.” Bashar, who was part of the Bangladesh team that played their first Test in 2000 against India and had scored Bangladesh’s first half-century in the format, hold people’s passion responsible for the uplift of game’s standard in Bangladesh during the last few years.
“Now, everyone in Bangladesh wants to play cricket. Like we see the craze for the game in India, we Bangladeshi too are over passionate for the game, and that’s the reason why we have been improving with every passing day.” Bashar, who grew up admiring the batting style of former India captain Mohd Azharuddin and later on other Hyderabadi cricketer VVS Laxman, said that Team India has a perfect blend of experienced and youth and they are amazing bunch of cricketers. “I find Kohli and Co the best side in the world as they have plenty of all-rounders, who have the ability to handle any kind of rivals in the world.” “I have been enjoying the batting style of Indian cricketers. Azhar, Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have been my favourite batsmen. When I started playing cricket, Bangladesh was far behind the other countries in the world then. It was challenging as well as tough, but somebody had to stand up and I took the challenge,” said Bahsar, who still holds the record of being the highest run-scorer for Bangladesh in Test cricket.
Known as ‘Mr Fifty’ for Bangladesh cricket after making a string of half centuries in Test cricket in his time, Bashar said the development of the game at the junior level was the best way to give a growth to the country’s cricket standard. “Series like this where under-23 players are put under the swords against a strong Indian side we are able to identify talent for the future. We are still an emerging nation in the cricket world and I believe that for future growth we need to continue holding such bilateral series in the future too.”
One of the selectors in Bangladesh Cricket Board, Basher admitted that there was a different kind of passion of becoming the left-arm spinners in Bangladesh. “We always had Indian batsmen in mind, especially like Sunil Gavaskar so we started with left-arm spinners, and since Skaib Al Hasan came to the picture the bowling style has been a bit hit in my country.”
› We are on target and preparing well for the October-November event next year. Bangladesh cricket has been doing well in the shorter formats of play and I would like to see my team lifting the trophy in Australia HABIBUL BASHAR, former captain