The Hindu : Bangladesh starts favourite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 11, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

Bangladesh starts favourite

Durban Feb. 10. Barring a miracle, Bangladesh will finally end its embarrassing streak of 26 straight defeats when it begins its World Cup campaign at the Kingsmead here on Tuesday.

The confidence stems from the fact that its opponent in the day-night encounter is Canada, which came through the qualifying ranks to take part in only its second World Cup.

Victory, however, cannot be taken for granted since the Canadians, comprising mainly West Indian and Asian immigrants, did win one of their two matches against Bangladesh so far.

Bangladesh has struggled to compete with the big boys, having succeeded in just three of its 61 one-day matches since being granted one-day international status in 1985-86.

And one of those victories was marred in controversy when it toppled mighty Pakistan in the previous World Cup in England four years ago amidst cries of foul play.

Bangladesh's confidence has been lifted by a 4-1 win over fellow World Cupper Namibia in a warm-up series last month, which featured an astonishing innings of 177 off 145 balls by opener Al Sahariar in the last game. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, those matches did not have one-day international status.

A bigger morale-booster was the five-wicket win Bangladesh managed in a practice match against South African provincial side KwaZulu-Natal last week following Ehsanul Haque's 92 and 68 from Sahariar. The same KwaZulu side defeated India the following day.

``If we play consistently, we will do well,'' said captain Khaled Mashud, the 27-year-old who has spoken of quitting the captaincy after the World Cup to concentrate on his wicket-keeping.

Canada, coached by former West Indian batsman Gus Logie, made its only other World Cup appearance in 1979 when it was shot out for a record low of 45 by host England.

* Teams: Bangladesh (from): Khaled Mashud (capt), Al Sahariar, Alok Kapali, Habibul Bashar, Hannan Sarker, Ehsanul Haque, Sanwar Hossain, Khaled Mahmud, Manjurul Islam, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Mohammad Rafique, Talha Jubair, Tapash Baisya, Tushar Imran.

Canada (from): Joseph Harris (capt), Ashish Bagai, Ian Billcliff, Desmond Chumney, Austin Codrington, John Davison, Nicholas de Groot, Nicholas Ifil, Davis Joseph, Ishwar Maraj, Ashish Patel, Abdool Samad, Fazil Sattaur, Barry Seebaran, Sanjayan Thuraisingam.

Umpires: Brian Jerling (RSA) and Aleem Dar (Pak); TV umpire: A.V. Jayaprakash (Ind); Match referee: Gundappa Vishwanath (Ind).

— AFP

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