[fwullah]

Full of enthusiasm, but lots to learn still

September 26 2002 at 09:30PM




By Jermaine Craig


They don't have too much going for them do the Bangladesh cricket team, but youthful exuberance is one quality they have in abundance.

The majority of players in their squad have barely passed their 20th birthdays and the first training session of their South African tour on Thursday resembled more a first-year varsity team's than an international Test-playing one.

Compared to the rather glum faces they wore on arrival at the Johannesburg International Airport on Wednesday, the Bangladeshis on Thursday were an exuberant, bubbly bunch when first setting foot on the lush Wanderers turf for a training session.

They let out excited schoolboyish yelps of "yeah, yeah, yeah" whenever they hit the stumps or took a catch during fielding practice and looked a team intent on enjoying themselves.

Well they might, because once the serious business of their tour gets underway Test cricket's minnows might not be smiling all that much.

While they may be one day, names like Tapash Kumar Baishya, Monjurul Islam and Alok Kapali are not quite household names yet, and are unlikely to intimidate the locals too much.

They've lost all but one of the 13 Tests they've played in the two years since they gained Test status and a win of any sort on their tour of two Tests and three one-day internationals here will have the anti-corruption unit busters around in a flash.

On Friday, though, they have a gentle enough start to their tour in the traditional Nicky Oppenheimer game at Randjiesfontein.

Surprisingly their are no Oppenheimers in the host's team this year, which has veteran Pat Symcox captaining a virtual Highveld Strikers team containing players like Daryll Cullinan, Adam Bacher, Marthinus Otto, Matthew Street, Grant Elliott and last week's debut centurion Enoch Nkwe.

The game represents a good opportunity for the tourists to limber up ahead of the more serious stuff, as it usually has a distinct carnival atmosphere about it.

South Africa meanwhile have made a few changes in personnel for the first two one-day internationals against Bangladesh next week, with Martin van Jaarsveld getting a long-overdue call-up and Mfuneko Ngam also selected, subject to him coming through this weekend's SuperSport Series match between Eastern Province and Northerns without injury.

Errol Stewart and Dale Benkenstein are two perennial fringe players who have been included in the squad, with their KZN Dolphins teammate Jonty Rhodes given a break from what should be a relatively simple assignment.


Squads:

Bangladesh: Khaled Masud, Habibul Bashar, Al Shariar, Tushar Imran, Khaled Mahmud, Monjurul Islam, Talha Jubaer, Mohammed Rafique, Tapash Kumar Baishya, Alok Kapali, Javed Omar Belim, Abdul Hannan Sarker, Sanuar Hossain, Rafiqul Islam Khan, Anwar Hossain

South Africa (for first two ODI's in Potchefstroom on October 3 and Benoni October 6): Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Dale Benkenstein, Boeta Dippenaar, Allan Donald, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Mfuneko Ngam, Makhaya Ntini, Justin Ontong, Graeme Smith, Errol Stewart, Martin van Jaarsveld

SA A (to play Bangladesh in Soweto on October 1): Andrew Hall, Loots Bosman, Jacques Rudolph, Ashwell Prince, Martin van Jaarsveld, Neil McKenzie, Robin Peterson, Thami Tsolekile, David Terbrugge, Andre Nel, Monde Zondeki, 12th man Enoch Nkwe