Tigers Ready for English Test

[Shish Ahmed]

Source: The Independent

MCC gets huge respond in ticket sale



There are no chances for the visiting Bangladeshi national cricketers to waste time concentrating only on their main counterparts because before meeting with the mighty English cricketers later on this month, their ability test begins tomorrow.

The Tigers, who were now at England in their maiden Test series, will start their mission with a three day against British Universities Squad.

No doubt the focuses will be on the Tests series but the member of Test babies can't ignore the importance of the practice matches as to many peoples the strength of both sides were almost equal.

On the other hand the tour matches will also open the opportunity for the tourists to adjust with the condition in the early summer as well as amend their mistakes before the final action.

They will play three practice matches before the first Test at Lord's and the three matches will give them the opportunity especially the batsmen to learn how to handle the moving balls.

To counter with their oppositions in the tour, Bangladesh were well equipped with five medium pacers. The visitors efforts to push their counterparts depends much on Mashrafee Bin Mortaza, country's quickest bowler Shahadat Hossain Razib, experienced Tapash Baishya, Talha Jubair and Anwar Hossain Monir. If the pacers can able to learn quickly how to exploit the conditions in the moving wickets, Bangladesh can finish the tour with heads high.

The cricketers had their gym work on Sunday at the hotel gymnasium at London and will leave for Cambridge for their first practice match at Fenners against the Universities squad on Monday, according to a message received here.

BSS adds: Much enthusiasm have been noticed in England on the Bangladesh's first ever test tour of England, the English newspaper The Independent said in a reports today. Although it has been utterly overshadowed by the Ashes (74 days and counting), the Bangladeshis will play two Tests against England, at Lord's and Chester- le-Street.

According to report by The Independent, despite the imbalance in strength between the two teams, ticket sales for the Tests are surging ahead. The result is that ticket sales on the first three days at Lord's are 13,500, 16,500 and 15,000. With a capacity of 29,000, the ground at least will not look too sparsely populated. The fact that only 3,000 people pre-ordered tickets for the Sunday demonstrates that most expect England to romp to a quick victory.

An MCC spokesman said: "We have targeted our efforts at the Bangladeshi communities in London, recognising both that this is the country's first Test match here and that they may not be familiar with how to get tickets."

Lord's will also have its now- traditional quota of schoolchildren. MCC have handed out 5,000 complimentary tickets to schools on each of the first three days. The Second Test at Chester-le-Street is going reasonably well, with 6,500 tickets were sold for each of the first two days.

The third day so far is extremely sluggish. However the total capacity is 8,000 here.

Before the Bangladesh team left Dhaka, coach Dav Whatmore talked up their chances and said they would make it hard for England. He has just signed a two-year extension to his contract but remains interested in the vacant post of coach of India. Bangladesh have played 36 tests in all, had to wait until their 35th for a win, against a denuded Zimbabwe, and have lost all but five of the remainder.

In their defence, it should be said that others new to Test cricket also had to wait. New Zealand, for instance, required 45 matches.

But the prosecution would say that the Kiwis managed to eke out plenty of draws. Most of the Bangladesh squad of 16 will never have seen anything like English pitches in May and June, and England can be expected to swat them aside, The Independent said in their report.

They have taken an immense risk with their squad by naming three uncapped players while retaining Habibul Bashar Sumon as captain. They have some adept cricketers: Habibul, who can play strokes, and Mohammad Rafique is their most accomplished spinner and leading Test wicket-taker with 67.

Rafique took 10 wickets in the two-match series against England two winters ago, and last year scored a belligerent century against West Indies in St Lucia.