The maiden phase of Bangladesh Tigers program concluded in Bogra’s Shaheed Chandu Stadium Monday.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board launched the program on February 25 with 23 cricketers who have either been in and out of the national team or yet to cement a spot.
A number of players who have done well in the recent Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 were also named part of the program.
Members of the camp selected for the tour of South Africa will now report to the national team while others will join their respective teams in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, set to start next Tuesday.
Senior member of the BCB national selection panel Habibul Bashar visited the camp on the last day in Bogra.
The former Bangladesh captain in a video message to the media said the Bangladesh Tigers program this time was designed to prepare cricketers for the South Africa tour.
Members of the Bangladesh Test squad including captain Mominul Haque participated in the program.
Bangladesh Test and one-day international team are scheduled to leave Dhaka for South Africa Friday night for three ODIs and two-match Test series against the hosts.
“The program was designed to prepare the cricketers for the South Africa tour. We tried to imitate the condition that would be in South Africa because the wicket in Bogra is seaming friendly wicket. You have pace and bounce here and the curators here were told to make the wickets as like South Africa to the highest extent possible,” said Bashar.
“They [the curator and groundsmen] have been able to do that. I spoke to the players and the coaches and they are very happy. The camp in Bogra has been successful I should say,” the former Bangladesh batter added.
Bashar mentioning the positives of the unique program said it is not only helping the cricketers to be ready for a national call but also giving the national selection panel the chance to look into a bigger pool of players.
“The program is helpful for not only the players but the selection panel too. The cricketers in the national team get the best of the facilities to practice. So, there are times when we look for a player from outside the national camp but it happens that they are not prepared, especially in off season," said Bashar.
“This program is helping us to have a bigger pool of cricketers to look into and it will be helpful given that we have a packed international schedule this year. There will be injuries and it can be that one or two players are not available; in that case we can have the replacements ready to take the field. And this is the main objective of this program,” he added.
Bangladesh Tigers is likely to have its second phase of the program in May this year.
Bangladesh are scheduled to host Sri Lanka for a two-Test series, that is part of the World Test Championship, and the program then will involve the limited-over cricketers.
