Bangladesh sign off WC camp, eye quarter-finals

Bangladesh said they hope to qualify for the quarter-finals in the upcoming World Cup as the team signed off their preparation for the tournament, scheduled in Australia and New Zealand from February 14 to March 29, on Thursday. ‘If I get my wish I want to go all the way,’ coach Chandika Hathurusinghe said at team’s officials press conference before the departure. ‘But realistically what I want to do is taking one game at a time and then qualifying for the second round (quarter-finals). ‘And if we qualify for the second round it’s one game at a time, again. It can be anyone’s game. ‘To qualify for the second round I think we need to win four games.

‘Three wins give you a chance but if you win four games we will probably make sure that we qualify for the quarter-finals. Bangladesh are in Pool A, which also includes two co-hosts Australia and New Zealand as well as England, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Scotland. The team will leave Dhaka on Saturday for Brisbane, where they will have two weeks of conditioning camp ahead of the tournament. They will play two unofficial matches during the condition camp at Brisbane before taking on Pakistan and Ireland in their scheduled warm-up matches, respectively on February 9 and 12, at Sydney. Bangladesh will begin their World Cup campaign against Afghanistan at Canberra on February 18. Hathurusinghe said he is happy with the preparation and said those practice matches will be crucial. ‘I was really pleased about what we did in practice in match scenarios, it gives us a lot of confidence,’ he said. ‘I think with Brisbane stint as well as four matches over there will give us a good indication about where we are.’ Skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza added that the opening match against Afghanistan will be key to Bangladesh’s success. ‘Obviously we want to go to the second round,’ said Mashrafee. ‘But it’s a tough job. We really need a good start in the tournament. Then the players will get a platform and will do well against bigger opponents.’

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