Image Credit- Dar Whatmore
According to former head coach Dav Whatmore,
Bangladesh is benefiting from funds the Bangladesh Cricket Board has allocated
for growth.
Furthermore, he led Bangladesh’s team in the 2007
World Cup, which brought in cricket players like Shakib al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal,
Mashrafe Mortaza, and Mushfiqur Rahim. Currently, he is in Bangladesh to coach
the Fortune Barisal in the country’s only T20 league based on franchises, the
Bangladesh Premier League.
“It’s always good (to come back in Bangladesh).
It really is good to land at the airport where there are so many familiar
faces. It’s always wonderful to return to Bangladesh as it is a place where I
had fond memories,” Whatmore told reporters following a practice session
at the BCB Academy premises recently.
“There is a big contrast (from the past). What I
have seen now are the fruits of the funding that’s been put into the
development like the High Performance and the A team and the money spent in the
Under-19,” he said.
“I saw evidence of that when I was here towards
the end of my four-year turn and it didn’t surprise me to see the youth teams
winning against bigger teams. It filtered through to the A team going to
England over the years and initially getting knocked off and slowly winning
over there, providing players for the national team. Domestic cricket I am not
hundred percent sure, but certainly the funding and finances that were directed
in the development have really paid dividends,” he added.
Whatmore said that the seniors like Tamim, Shakib and
others coming close to the end of their career need to groom the juniors before
leaving the international circuit.
“They (seniors) have an obligation to bed them in
to pass their knowledge and make life a bit easier for them. Ultimately those
youngsters will have to do it but they can be helped along the way so yeah they
have an obligation and they are doing that from what I have seen,”
Whatmore said.
“You know the qualities of those guys certainly
emerged, and so therefore when they do leave there is evidence of others coming
through. Another batch is surely coming through so they certainly have played
their part in passing on their knowledge just by being in the same dressing
room with a youngster let alone speaking and explaining certain things,”
he opined.