Agency :
Bangladesh Under-19 Cricket team’s Head Coach Naved Newaz said on Sunday their eyes are not fixed only on defending the ICC World Cup but also looking at producing players to represent the country at the senior level.
Defending champions Bangladesh are having a good momentum ahead of the showpiece event scheduled in West Indies from 2022 considering they will be flying to Dubai to play in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup on the back of clinching a triangular series in Kolkata played between India A and B age-level team along with the tourist.
“There are two goals when you look at playing in the U-19 World Cup and so the main goal would be a long term goal of producing players for Bangladesh cricket. So that’s the main goal of any cricket board who’s selecting an U 19 team and obviously, the second goal is to try bring a World Cup, so that’s a short term goal we are looking at. So we are trying to keep eyes open to look at the bigger picture as well as the immediate goals,” the Sri Lankan, who guided the team to their maiden ICC trophy, told reporters at the BCB academy premises.
BCB included Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Rakibul Hasan, who were part of the ICC Under-19 World Cup winning squad, in their Under-19 squad for the India tour after the debacle in Sri Lanka tour. Newaz added that they are inspiring others in the team and was instrumental in India tour that prompted them to select Rakibul as their captain for Asia Cup and ICC Under-19 World Cup.
“It’s a good advantage for us to have two season players in our squad, and also these two boys have been there in the last two years. And they know exactly what they did in the last two years, which brought us success. So the good thing about it is that they can inspire the younger players in the group and they can also contribute into planning, and they know what’s happening in the last two years. So they can also create like a leadership group and help the team to sort of grow together,” said Newaz.
