Bangladesh open WC against India

Bangladesh open their Cricket World Cup campaign against mighty India on Saturday in Trinidad with hopes of erasing the nightmarish memories of the previous edition of cricket's showpiece event.

Habibul Bashar's men left home with a promise to make at least one upset in their group, which also includes ex-champions Sri Lanka, to win a place in the second round and their stunning success in the warm-up triangular series and the official warm-up games has intensified the expectation of the cricket crazy fans in the country.

The Tigers suddenly got special attention after their astonishing two-wicket victory against New Zealand in the first warm-up match in Barbados.

After that, they made many believe that they have the potential to beat any side in the world and that their recent one-day success against cricket minnows was not a fluke.

The Indian side, including skipper Rahul Dravid, also admitted that Bangladesh have emerged as serious challengers to the sport's big names and neither India nor Sri Lanka can now afford to take Bashar's side lightly.

Banking on players like Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and the skipper himself and taking pleasure from previous record where they have won 13 matches out of their 14 one-day encounters, India will definitely start as favourites.

But the Tigers can also take inspiration from their 15-run victory against their next-door neighbours that to beat India is nothing new.

In that happy-hunting match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in December, 2004, pace spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (unbeaten 31 runs and two wickets) and dashing Aftab Ahmed (67) shaped Bangladesh's first-ever success against the Indians and undoubtedly, the team will be looking forward to a similar act from the two special players.

One Indian newspaper even headlined after the Tigers' two-wicket triumph against Stephen Fleming's men: "Will Bashar's smile sink a million hearts?". So everybody is eagerly waiting to hear the Tigers roar again in the big show after losing all their World Cup matches four years earlier in South Africa.

It is actually time for Dav Whatmore's boys to rise to the occasion, not only to take the game into a new era but also to erase the African nightmare of 2003.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, named 12 players for their opener with opener Javed Omer, batsman Rajin Saleh and fast bowler Shahadat Hossain Rajib left out.
The team had their training session at the Queen’s Park Oval, the venue for the game.

The day, however, began on a sombre note for the Tigers with the news of Manzarul Islam Rana's death in a road accident back home.

“It is a terribly distressing news and we don’t have words to express our shock and grief. The players are absolutely stunned. Our heart goes out to Rana’s family and may the Almighty grant his soul eternal peace,” said Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar.

“If we do something good in this World Cup we will dedicate that to Rana,” added Bashar.

Bashar also expressed his grief at the sad demise of Setu who was on the back seat of the same motorbike Rana was riding.

“It is a great loss for our cricket. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to Setu’s young family,” said Bashar.

The Bangladesh team have also decided to wear black armbands during the match to show their respect to Rana.

BANGLADESH SQUAD

Habibul Bashar (Captain), Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mohammed Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Tapash Baishya.