Soccer warmup for cricket teams (20 October 1998)

20 October 1998

Soccer warmup for cricket teams

by Zahid Newaz in Dhaka

The cricketers had come with willows, wickets and balls but their first appearance at Bangabandhu National Stadium on Monday was through football, the game almost sent in exile from the ground.

None of the England and Zimbabwe squads, who arrived here on Sunday for the Wills International Cup, is even an amateur booter and their friendly matches were not only for passing time or mere pleasure.

Rather, England divided in two groups and also Zimbabwe in two teams played soccer as part of their warm-up practice for the tourney, popularly dubbed as "Mini World Cup", country's biggest ever cricket carnival since independence in 1971.

Before beginning practice, half of the England players put off their jerseys to become two separate teams. They played football for about 15 minutes without any score as none was able to push the ball through the makeshift goal bar built by side screen.

Zimbabwe, who will play a practice match against England on October 21 at the BKSP ground, also played a goalless football match.

Players of both the teams were delighted watching the huge bowl of Bangabandhu National Stadium and also expressed satisfaction over the newly prepared ground.

"It's a huge and nice ground," said Zimbabwean off-spinner Andrew Whittall and also wanted to know about the crowd to watch cricket match.

He exclaimed with joy when came to know that the organisers are expecting a huge spectators also in the opening match of the tournament on October 24 between Zimbabwe and New Zealand, who are in the bottom among the Testplaying nations.

New Zealand team is scheduled to reach Dhaka on Tuesday morning. The Kiwis led by left-handed batsman, Stephen Fleming, will be the third team to reach the capital. The team included 14 players and 5 officials.

As the two teams had practice at Bangabandhu Stadium, Event Manager Asif Iqbal said the three practice grounds will take another two or three days to be usable as soils there are still wet.

"However, practice ground could not be used if rainfall takes place in the meantime," he said adding, in that case there will be no alternative to use the Bangabandhu Stadium also for practice.

Source :: CricInfo365