ZCZC
BSP-12
CRICKET-HP-FACILITIES
HP facilities, talents impress Radford
DHAKA, Oct 29, 2020 (BSS)—Bangladesh High Performance (HP) head coach Toby Radford was hugely impressed by the talents and facilities he was given, stating that he can’t ask more as the facilities are great to work with the young talents.
He said his big challenge would be to prepare players for International cricket in every condition. Having said that he made it sure, he is ready to take up the challenge.
“I am really enjoying it so far. I have been impressed with the quality of the facilities in the High Performance Centre. We have a lovely lecture room, a big indoor school. the lovely pitch in the background. We have outdoor nets. These are great facilities to work with young talent. My big challenge is to fast-track high quality young talented players into performing in international cricket, in every condition,” Radford said during a virtual press conference on Thursday.
Radford said he already made it clear to the players that he wants them to perform in all conditions, not in Bangladesh just.
“I think playing against other high performance teams. One of the things I said to the players on my first day was that we know Bangladesh are a very good side in Bangladesh. They know how to play in their own conditions. I see a big part of my role in the HP is to produce players who can go into the first team, whether it’s Test, ODI or T20 cricket and perform anywhere in the world,” he remarked.
“If they go to Australia, they can face Mitchell Starc on a quick wicket in Perth, if they go to England they can play the swing and seam of Jimmy Anderson. The only way you can do that is if you take these players into other environments and give them experiences of facing those types of players so that when they get into the international side, they’ve been there before and they can cope with it,” he added.
He said that Bangladesh has good resources as far as the young talents are concerned.
“I have already been really impressed with the talent. We have a young lad in the ground who does throwdowns with the dogstick, they call him Jofra and he probably throws at about 90 miles an hour. There were certainly three or four batters this morning who really stood up to that, showed good technique and courage and guts, to be top-end Test players. It is encouraging for us,” he said.
“There are three or four in my mind. Last thing I want to do is singling them out, and that too after just two or three days. There’s no doubt in my mind. I could probably rank them but I can’t do that publicly. I think it’d be unfair on them. As a coach, you want to give yourself more time. We have some internal two-day, 50-over and 20-over matches coming up next week. I want to see more of them.”
BSS/SMP/AU/18:35 hrs