Our World Cup record and preparation for next

The ICC World Cup Cricket-2023 isn’t far away. This tournament will be held on October-November this year at different venues in our neighbor India. Ten teams will participate in the mega event on a league format. India has already qualified as hosts. Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have also qualified through their performance in the ICC One-day Championship. Probably South Africa or Ireland is the next team who will qualify directly. We know that two teams from qualifying round will join with directly qualified teams.

Bangladesh has mixed feelings in the past editions of One-day World Cup. At WC debut in 1999, Bangladesh stunned the whole Cricket world by beating Mighty Pakistan in the group stage. Winning against Scotland on a completely different condition also was a good performance. Losing margin against Australia, New Zealand and West Indies wasn’t bad at all. Actually memorable performance on debut helped us a lot to achieve the much-awaited Test status later. But Bangladeshi Cricket fans saw a dismal show in the next World Cup in South Africa in the early 2003. Tigers lost all the six group matches including shameful defeat against ICC associate nations Kenya and Canada.

Next World Cup in 2007 was really memorable one for us. Bangladesh knocked out India from first round at Trinidad and reached in The super eight stage. The stunned mighty south Africa in super eight stage at Georgetown, Guyana. In 2011 World cup on home soil Bangladesh managed to win three matches against England, Ireland and Netherlands.

2015 World Cup Cricket in Australia and New Zealand was really impressive for the Tigers. They qualified in the quarter final stage and fought very well against mighty India there. Some controversial decisions of umpires went against us as well. After four years the Tigers went to England for playing 2019 World Cup and won three matches out of nine. They Beat strong South Africa in their first match at Oval but could not continue the from and just won against West Indies and Afghanistan. Bangladesh was in the eighth position among ten teams.

Now we should admit that record of Bangladesh in their past six World Cups is very ordinary. Especially their failure as a very balanced side in 2019 was simply disappointing. But Look at our neighbor Sri Lanka. They achieved their Test Status in 1982 and became unbeaten champions in 1996. Zimbabwe was very near to semifinal in 1999 World Cup after seven years of achieving Test Status. Why we could not achieve something like this ? The reasons are described below. It is a matter of disappointment that we have failed to bring professionalism in Cricket after almost 23 years of achieving test status. All facilities are available for national team.

Do we keep busy our ‘A’ Team throughout the whole year ? ‘A’ Team is not only a platform for emerging players but also for the players who dropped from national team and need a platform to show from again and come back in the national team. Still there is no well-equipped Cricket academy for providing talents year after year. The only ‘List-A’ competition is usually organized at almost off season (especially on April-May).

Pitches are not up-to the mark and we don’t see 300 plus score regularly. If we want to improve the standard of our ‘List-A’ competition we have to solve all problems soon. Now I’d like to focus on our preparation for next World Cup. We are going to play a three-matches One-day series on next month at Chelmsford, England against weaker team Ireland. Not only opponent is weaker than us but also playing in English condition will not be ideal preparation for a World Cup which will be held on Indian soil.

Yes, we may play 4/5 matches in the Asia Cup Cricket which is scheduled to hold in Pakistan on September. But dispute between two rivals India and Pakistan has made the future of the tournament uncertain. So how can we take better preparation for next World Cup ? We have to play more matches against quality opponents. If we can convince the authorities of United Arab Emirates for using Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah Cricket grounds especially on June, July and August (off season in Bangladesh) for playing practice matches, it could be a good opportunity. Who could be our opponents ?

International schedule is very tight and strong teams are not available at all. What can we do in this situation ? It could be a good idea if we invite ‘A’ teams of Australia, England, New Zealand or Pakistan. Three One-day series against three teams (at least nine matches) could be a good preparation in Asian condition.

We can also do some experiment on our squad during this time and a perfect combination could be found. Our batters can practice to score 330 plus runs regularly which will be vital in India on October-November. We will play at least nine matches like last World Cup. Our initial target should be win at least five matches out of nine. If we can make it, semifinal may not be far away for us. So Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) should take right decision in right time.

Writer : journalist and Cricket Analysts

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