Tigers retain WC squad for India

Habibul Bashar stays captain with a new deputy in Mohammad Ashraful as Bangladesh retained the World Cup squad without any change for the three one-day matches against India.

Chief selector Faruque Ahmed declared the 14-member squad at a press conference on Monday, leaving only Rajin Saleh out of the team that toured the Caribbean for the cricket's showpiece event.

Rajin, who returned from the West Indies without playing any match, was dropped from the side as the selectors had to reduce the squad although all-rounder Forhad Reza, who joined the team in the middle of the competition to replace injured paceman Tapash Baisya, kept his place.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made a new vice-captain in place of out-of-form opener Shahriar Nafees in a view to replace Bashar in the near future as the 34-year old Tigers captain is all set to quit one-day cricket after this month's series.

"Actually the selectors are not part of selecting captain and vice-captain as the board has the sole responsibility. I think right at the moment Ashraful is in good form that's why he has been given the job. But it doesn't necessarily mean that a vice-captain will automatically be a captain in future," said Faruque.

BCB vice-president Shah Nurul Kabir Shaheen explained the reason behind the change of the vice-captain.

"We appointed captain and vice-captain only for the coming series. What we believe is that Ashraful has a long career ahead of him and he is one of our best batsmen that's why we picked him as a vice-captain. The main reason is that the board is looking forward to the 2011 World Cup. But there is nothing for granted because form is very important," said Shaheen.

On the other hand Faruque, who met with his colleagues to finalise the squad on Monday morning, said that his panel preferred to continue with the squad that had an impressive performance in the showpiece event.

"We found no reason to make changes in the team and Rajin was dropped only because we had to reduce the size of the squad," he said.

There was however discussion about in-form batsman Tushar Imran, but the panel failed to reach a unanimous decision about the dashing right-hander.

"He (Tushar) is amongst the best performer at domestic and A team level but he has failed to capitalise on the opportunities he has been given at the highest level. He will be repaid for his good form soon. I hope he will get back his place in the national side for a long period," explained Faruque.

In reply to a question, the former national skipper admitted that the vulnerable opening pair is a huge problem for the team and hinted that they simply had no choice but to continue with veteran Javed Omar.

"It's a big problem although we have been trying different pairs for the last four years. Why we go back to Javed time and again: the answer is we are yet to get the right combination," he defended.

Faruque said that he will prefer a sporting wicket in the coming series as it will help the players cope with any condition anywhere.

"You saw how our batsmen struggled on bouncy wickets at Barbados. It might not be possible to produce and maintain same kind of pitches in our country but if we at least make a sporting one than our batsmen can be successful all over the world," he said.

India will arrive in Dhaka on May 7 to play two Tests and three one-day internationals against the Tigers, who stunned their next-door neighbour with a five-wicket victory to cause a first round exit from the World Cup.
Bangladesh cricket team start training from Thursday.

SQUAD

Habibul Bashar (captain), Mohammad Ashraful (vice-captain), Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Syed Rasel, Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain and Farhad Reza.