Bangladesh Tigers begins its journey

Bangladesh Tigers development program, drawn up to develop the national team hopefuls and local coaches, began its journey Saturday in Bogra's Shaheed Chandu Stadium.

The development program, brainchild of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, started with 20 cricketers and local coaches, in the presence of its chairman Kazi Inam Ahmed and BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury.

The players took part in batting and bowling practice from 7:25am till 11am before doing fielding drills at midday.

After returning from lunch break, the cricketers underwent fitness training from 2pm till 4 in the evening.

On the inaugural day of the program, Inam, also a BCB director, said Bangladesh Tigers is an important part of the board's plans to improve the local coaches and keep the cricketers on their toes before a national call-up.

He added, "The board had the wish to form a development program for those with potential and who are outside the national team where there would be continuous training. Thanks to the board president (Nazmul Hasan) for taking this initiative. We want our players to be well looked after throughout the year."

Inam said through Bangladesh Tigers, the players who play well in domestic competitions can keep themselves active in the off-season, while those national cricketers who play only one format can also benefit from this program.

"The domestic players stay busy through NCL (National Cricket League), BCL (Bangladesh Cricket League), BPL (Bangladesh Premier League) and Dhaka Premier League, they need to continue training in the off-season too, this is why this program has been set up," said the BCB director.

Whilst citing an example, Inam explained, "Our program has begun, at the same time our ODI and T20 cricketers are busy with the Afghanistan series. But eight to 10 of our Test players are not involved in the series. They will soon go to South Africa, with that group and those who did well in domestic cricket, we have started our program. The Test players can prepare themselves mentally and physically under the coaches here. Many have been dropped from the national side due to injury and loss of form. They can prepare themselves here. 

He continued, "This program is as important as our High Performance and U-19. There is also the 'A' team, when they are on tour the program will have players from Bangladesh Tigers, HP and U-19. But this program is only for training."  

The first phase of the program will run till March 7 in Bogra.

"We will restart the program when our players are available. We had a window of 20 days, so we are holding the program for 10-12 days. The DPL will get underway on March 15, all the cricketers will be busy at that time," said Inam.

Coach Mizanur Rahman will be in charge of the preparation camp with former national player Aftab Ahmed as the batting coach.

Nazmul Hossain will be the bowling coach while Sri Lankan Champaka Ramanayake will be there as the specialist foreign coach.

"We have eight local coaches here, all of them have worked with different teams in the DPL. By roster the coaches will work with the players," said Inam

"The pacers will work on death bowling, power hitting for shorter formats will also be looked at, the players will be monitored. I want to hold a long camp with wrist spinners who are playing well or have potential. We have plans like this moving forward. Inshallah we will do it."