Champions go back to spotlight at last
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had long-term plans for the 2019 ICC Under-19 World Cup-winning young Tigers but things changed drastically in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that gripped the world since early 2020.
The BCB's game development committee had even formed an under-21 side with all the current members of the champion team and were almost in the ultimate stages of arranging a long camp in England.
Akbar Ali and his troops were keen to talk about the dressing room with senior members and play alongside their idols Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and others in domestic competitions.
There was much anticipation among the world champions to make the step up however the long wait to come back to competitive cricket has frustrated those desires.
Finally, however, the BCB is all set to come back to competitive cricket after a gap of seven months through the three-team fifty-over competition starting from October 11, and the selectors have included most the World Cup-winning side, who are divided among the three teams.
Although the tournament could be yet another event for the seniors like Tamim and Mushfiqur, for Akbar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Shoriful Islam and others this is a golden opportunity for which they have been waiting their entire careers.
"It's been a long wait, honestly, since we won the World Cup last year. We had huge plans to take the next step and we were wanting to give our best whenever the chance came. Obviously, we'd very little to accomplish in this pandemic, although the board had arranged a training camp in BKSP, that was really helpful," said World Cup-winning captain Akbar.
"If everything remained normal, we would have played the Dhaka [Premier] League which most of us were eagerly awaiting, but that didn't happen. But finally, we are certain to get the chance to play competitive cricket in the three-team tournament and I am contained in Tamim bhai's team. I'll make an effort to utilise this opportunity and study from my seniors as much I could in the coming days," he added.
Young left-handed opener Tanzim, another young opening batsman, who's nicknamed Tamim, impressed many during the World Cup campaign and can also be playing beneath the senior Tamim, who he idolises.
"It is wonderful become a reality playing in Tamim bhai's team. As an opening batsman I have always tried to understand from Tamim bhai and it can't progress than easily could open the innings with him and share the same dressing room. Following the World Cup, we were actually waiting to play with the seniors in the domestic circuit, be it in the Dhaka League or in the first-class competitions but that didn't happen. The upcoming tournament will be a huge platform for all of us to showcase our talent and, moreover, we will learn a whole lot from our seniors," said Tamim.
From yesterday, the BCB also started working out camp of the High-Performance squad, in which twelve World Cup-winning players were included. The cricketers currently in the HP squad are anticipated to become listed on their respective teams from October 10 for the tri-series.
