MohammedC
June 30, 2007, 06:59 PM
We will strive to be more competitive - Ashraful
By S. R. Pathiravithana
<TABLE cellPadding=3 width="32%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070701/images/sp19-1.jpg</TD><TD>http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070701/images/sp19-2.jpg</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=2>Bangladesh skipper Mohammed Ashraful and Manager Ali Asif Khan talking to The Sunday Times ( Pic by Berty Mendis)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Explaining about their domestic first class structure Ali Asif Khan said “At present we are striving to establish the four-day structure. Putting a lot of emphasis on first class cricket which we did not have before and now we believe that we have a strong first class structure. It needs a lot of improvement, but we are working on that.
“Besides that we are also nurturing our junior cricket – under 15, 17 and under 19 cricket in short the Board is working in so many ways to make our domestic cricket very strong so that we can compete at Test match level.
“We are trying to make our four day cricket tournament very competitive, what happened before was we had twelve or thirteen teams in our first class structure. Now we have eliminated that and now we have only six teams taking part in it. Besides that players who are taking part in this competition are selected by the national selectors and in that way you can eliminate manipulation. Now what we have done is that the selectors choose the six teams and we have a very strong competition. This change came about two years ago and in reality we will be able to see the results of this development only in another three to four years”.
Ashraful replied “During the last six years as a Test cricketer I have played against many countries and I have seen our side, improving. But, here till we took on India last month we had not played Test cricket for about fourteen months and the adjustment back to the longer duration of the game has been a bit difficult. The momentum that we had got going was lost. Now we are trying to catch up”.
“There were lots of preparations for the World Cup and all our attention was diverted towards that endeavour. So coming from that back ground and transforming our attention of playing Test cricket for a young cricketing nation like us can be a bit difficult. But, I am sure that we could be more competitive in the coming series.” Asraful said in conclusion.
Read more (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070701/Sports/sp210.html)
By S. R. Pathiravithana
<TABLE cellPadding=3 width="32%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070701/images/sp19-1.jpg</TD><TD>http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070701/images/sp19-2.jpg</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=2>Bangladesh skipper Mohammed Ashraful and Manager Ali Asif Khan talking to The Sunday Times ( Pic by Berty Mendis)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Explaining about their domestic first class structure Ali Asif Khan said “At present we are striving to establish the four-day structure. Putting a lot of emphasis on first class cricket which we did not have before and now we believe that we have a strong first class structure. It needs a lot of improvement, but we are working on that.
“Besides that we are also nurturing our junior cricket – under 15, 17 and under 19 cricket in short the Board is working in so many ways to make our domestic cricket very strong so that we can compete at Test match level.
“We are trying to make our four day cricket tournament very competitive, what happened before was we had twelve or thirteen teams in our first class structure. Now we have eliminated that and now we have only six teams taking part in it. Besides that players who are taking part in this competition are selected by the national selectors and in that way you can eliminate manipulation. Now what we have done is that the selectors choose the six teams and we have a very strong competition. This change came about two years ago and in reality we will be able to see the results of this development only in another three to four years”.
Ashraful replied “During the last six years as a Test cricketer I have played against many countries and I have seen our side, improving. But, here till we took on India last month we had not played Test cricket for about fourteen months and the adjustment back to the longer duration of the game has been a bit difficult. The momentum that we had got going was lost. Now we are trying to catch up”.
“There were lots of preparations for the World Cup and all our attention was diverted towards that endeavour. So coming from that back ground and transforming our attention of playing Test cricket for a young cricketing nation like us can be a bit difficult. But, I am sure that we could be more competitive in the coming series.” Asraful said in conclusion.
Read more (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070701/Sports/sp210.html)