Coach Helmot happy with BCB HP team
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)-High Performance (HP) returned home from Darwin after finishing a successful two-week-long tour.
Following their incredible result in five-match one-day series against the Northern Territory Invitational XI, the visiting side fantastically clawed back and triumphed the tour-ending three-day match.
HP head coach Simon Helmot tipped the tour as excellent, stating that players got good learnings what is needed for them to break into the national fold.
Citing the names of some players including Shanto, Saifuddin, Irfan and Tanvir, he said that they all have bright future.
The tour was excellent. There were fantastic facilities and great conditions. Youve had some good performances and most importantly, some good learnings about where the player and the team needs to improve to develop some of these players into national players, Simon Helmot said.
We need to get some stronger bodies who can bowl for longer periods of time. We need to get some batsmen who can be strong physically and mentally to bat long periods of time. We need to make sure that we develop our bodies to be agile and strong enough and have strong throwing arms to be excellent in the field. There are many aspects on which to improve upon. I thought the tour had some great individual performances, he told newsmen.
Shanto, Saifuddin and young Irfan made hundreds. Tanvir taking a five-wicket haul. We played some good cricket; whether we won or lost, it wasnt the point of the tour. The tour was about developing these players against unfamiliar opposition in unfamiliar conditions, to make sure they were developing their skills to be good players for all formats for Bangladesh, he added.
When asked how was our bowling performance, Australia-born coach said that they could put pressure on the opposition that good sign for our development.
It was generally very good. I suppose the greatest test we had was Day 2 of the three-day match when we took three wickets and the opposition made over 300 runs, he said, adding: Young Nihad took two wickets, the leg-spinner took two wickets and pace no wickets. Its a great challenge for us for when were in a similar situation next time, how do we still be strong enough pace-wise and with skill with the ball to be able to put pressure on the opposition.
He evaluates the performance of the opening batsmen and said, Liton Das is a very good player. He is coming back from injury over the last few months. Bijoy has excellent skills. Shanto also had a hundred. They have great attributes and have also played for the national side.
When asked about the strength of the opponent, HP coach said, Their depth, I think, wasnt as strong as we had hoped. The first game we should have lost. We put on 20 runs for the last wicket partnership to win the game. So the first three 50-over matches were very competitive. Game 4 and 5 wasnt as competitive. They missed a couple of players through injuries. The three-day game was terrific. The last day was very exciting. Both teams tried to win the match. We didnt waste a days cricket. They just fell short of our target.
