Bangladesh cricket team has always been dependent on spinners. However, Heath Streak, the new fast bowling coach for the Tigers thinks one of his missions in his new role as the Tigers’ bowling coach will be to find a bunch of young fast bowlers who can become the mainstay of Tigers’ bowling attack alongside spinners. In his first official press conference as the Tigers’ bowling coach at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday, Streak also revealed that his efforts would not only be restricted to finding fast bowlers. He rather thinks his efforts should ensure those very fast bowlers culminate in reducing the Tigers’ reliance on spinners for a sustained period of time.
“I think it is dangerous to set specific targets as you might get it done quickly and become happy. I would like to identify a group of eight or ten quick bowlers. We know spin bowling has been strong for Bangladesh. We can’t relax and expect for that to continue,” said Streak.
The 40-year-old also added that he had analysed few fast bowlers of Bangladesh and will try to work on the mental aspect of the cricketers. “I have to learn a lot about the bowlers and I have analysed these players as an opponent both as a player and a coach. But now I have to understand them as individuals and personalities. The mental side of the things is what I want to work on with the guys,” he said.
The former captain of Zimbabwe knows the level of expectations from him and asked for patience at least till the 2015 World Cup to notice improvements in the current crop of fast bowlers. “I know there are huge expectations. The India series is coming up soon but it doesn’t matter who you are, these things take time. Experience doesn’t happen overnight. You cannot go to a shopping mall and buy experience. We will see some consistency among the bowlers hopefully by the World Cup,” he added.
Bangladesh’s fast bowling attack has long been spearheaded by Mashrafe bin Mortaza who has suffered multiple knee injuries throughout his career while new young pacers including Taskin Ahmed, who recovered from an injury and made his debut in the World T20, Al Amin and Robiul Islam have shown promises to succeed at the highest level.
Although Bangladesh has Rubel Hossain who can bowl fast and boasts off an impressive record in the ODIs, a huge lack of skill and expertise prevails prominently in our fast bowlers’ arsenal when it comes to doing well in Test matches, a format where the tigers have failed miserably to shine.
Streak, who is very familiar with the Bangladeshi culture and food habits, was looking forward to introduce professionalism among the cricketers by knowing their lifestyles. He also spoke of looking for more young talents in the pipeline to give them more exposures.
“Firstly, I believe there are a couple of young guys coming through. So I am really keen to look at them. Obviously getting them to become professionals, how they eat, train is a long term thing. So we need to start now to develop these guys and see whether they are physically good enough to cope with the international level. You see many youngsters whose bodies are not strong enough to cope with the international schedule. So that’s a key thing that we are going to work with,” said Streak.
The new fast bowling guru for the Tigers will be paired with new coach Chandika Hathurusingha and Streak believes it’s important to work together as they both have the same aim, which is to improve the quality of Bangladesh cricket.
“I have to make it work. I am under him. I have got to make sure my coaching philosophies and his (Hathurusingha) are going to merge together. It is to our benefits at the end of the day. If teams don’t perform, it’s us coaches who get judged.”
“When he reaches here in a few days time, I will certainly be spending time with him. Hopefully he and I will have a good understanding. It’s not just the players that need to be a good team. The coaching staffs need to be unified. We have to give the same message to the players. It’s important for them to get one consistent message,” he said.
The cricket crazy fans of the Tigers would dearly hope the Hathurusingha-Streak coaching combination will synchronize to bring glory to Bangladesh cricket.
