Akram Khan reveals the story behind Bangladesh's success
Bangladesh have moved to 7th position in International Cricket Council's One Day International (ODI) rankings. They whitewashed Pakistan followed by defeating India India by 2-1 in home ODI series. This clearly indicates the rise of the new Asian tigers.
But how did everything change in a short span of time? Former Bangladesh's player Akram Khan said Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is putting more efforts in the age group cricket to strengthen the bench strength.
“We have a dedicated development programme for under-14, under-16 and under-19 teams. Every district and division has a programme of its own. We select 24-30 under-19 players every two years and the selected kids come to BCB National Cricket Academy (on the campus of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium) to be trained here,” Akram was quoted saying by bdcricteam.com.
Akram said we are planning to get the talent out from school cricket itself by encouraging them to play more.
“More than 500 schools play every year in the shorter version, but not properly. This year we have decided to do it properly and encourage them to play matches lasting longer period of time, so that we can find some good players from there.”
He added saying previously only club cricketers used to get chances to play important tournament, but now the things are changing.
“Around 15 years ago when there was no first class cricket, club cricket used to be a very important tournament for all players. Those who played club cricket had a good chance of playing for Bangladesh.
“That time cricket was not so popular in our country; football was the No.1 sport. We used to have just two or three tournaments in a year. Apart from the DPL, we managed to take part in some smaller events. Now the players are getting enough opportunity to play,” Akram said.
Akram was the member of Bangladesh's first Test team. He talked about the importance of club cricket is the country and how it has been shaping the national team.
“Club cricket has been an important event in our domestic calendar. There is a lot of money in the league and several top cricketers play in it. In the past, we used to have a lot of foreign stars such as Ajay Jadeja, Arjuna Ranatunga, Wasim Akram, Neil Fairbrother in the league.”