BCB plans big (21 May 1999)

21 May 1999

BCB plans big

Nizamuddin Ahmed in London

May 20: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has drawn up a long-term scheme as part of its development programme for the game countrywide.

Its five-year master plan includes recruitment of a foreign coach - most probably a new one - for the under-19 level and a permanent physiotherapist, initiation of a longer version domestic circuit and building up of six regional indoor practice centres.

This was disclosed by the BCB president, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, in an exclusive interview here with The Daily Star Sport.

With the looming prospect of the present coach Gordon Greenidge not returning to Dhaka after the World Cup, BCB would be looking to employ a foreign coach, "not for the national team, but for younger players", said the BCB boss, who is flying to Dublin today to see Bangladesh play the West Indies tomorrow.

He lodged with the team at their Essex hide-out, the Brentwood Forte Posthouse, on the eve of the New Zealand match, "but I did not get any room in the team's Dublin hotel; I have booked one next to theirs," he said.

Appreciating the competence and the impact of the Bangladesh physio Allan Hunt, who was likely to join the full Australian side soon, the BCB president said, "Our experience has convinced us that we need a proficient physio on a full-time basis".

Elaborating the regional scheme that is programmed along divisional lines, the president said, "We have already appointed five Regional Development Officers for cricket and we have received applications for the sixth, who will be appointed soon. The six regional cricket associations will each have an indoor facility for training round the year".

"The BKSP (at Savar) will be the centre of excellence for the best boys from the whole country," Chowdhury spelt out.

Responding to the query, after the World Cup what?, the head of the 32-member cricket board said, "We have to take a hard look at the whole thing. There should be no assumptions. It has to be a whole new exercise.

"New players will have to come through. In all probability this would be the last World Cup for several of our players, four to five of them, who are around their thirties. At this level of competition, one cannot expect to last that long."

He continued on a positive note, "We have some good young players. They are good material for the future. Some of them are already in the team. There is already a nucleus of young players around which the team can develop".

About its bid for the Test status, the president confided that he was yet to see the ICC technical committee's report on Bangladesh, but his "gut feeling" was that the international body will insist on continuing the three-day and longer version matches, which have already been introduced this season, for (at least) another year in the domestic tournaments.

Agreeing that a few good results by the national side would help Bangladesh's Test cause, he explained that, "It is not that we have to only win matches. If we can give some of them a good run for their money, that would also go down positively".

The BCB president expects that one or two changes are likely in the team to meet the West Indies tomorrow at Dublin. One specialist batsman may be included.

"At this level of competition we do not expect to bowl out a side. So we will be trying to score as many runs as possible," he said with the faculty of a cricket pundit.

Source :: The Daily Star