Whatmore laughs off Lillee's criticism

Dav Whatmore, coach of Bangladesh, has shrugged off Dennis Lillee's criticism of Bangladesh and its upcoming tour of Australia, saying that it was not the first time a new side had struggled to make its presence felt.

"It's been pushed into the background that New Zealand and West Indies took a while to win Test matches," said Whatmore. "We need to be a little bit careful. And it depends what sort of eyes you are looking through."

Whatmore pointed out that Bangladesh had much passion for the game on its side. "There are 140 million people in Bangladesh. They get their act together and they are going to be a real push for other countries," he said. "We've got the supporter base and the player base. We don't have to spend a huge amount of money to get kids to play cricket like they do here in Australia."

Asking for patience from the cricket world, Whatmore said: "I have an open mind on this and there's been a couple of good examples of sides coming into international cricket and having to wait a long time before they had a win."

But he made few concessions for his players, stating that they needed to toughen up to win. "You can imagine if you are one of those poor people there who loves their cricket and you look forward to the team doing well and they don't - everyone is on a downer," said Whatmore. "It's important for countries like Bangladesh for their sporting results to be positive - it just lifts everyone."