BANGLADESH, (CMC) – The Bangladesh cricket team is due to leave here today for Trinidad and Tobago to take part in a four-nation Twenty20 tournament.
The Asia vs The Caribbean Twenty20 tournament at the Queen’s Park Oval from September 6 to 8 also features Barbados, Afghanistan and Trinidad and Tobago.
However, the Bangladesh team including stars such as attacking batsman Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, the world’s top rated ODI all-rounder, are still not fully aware who their opponents in the competition will be.
“We don’t know about our opponents except that Afghanistan is one of the teams in the tournament. But we are making good preparations as we already played some matches “said batsman Jahurul Islam after the team completed a practice match at the National Cricket Academy ground, Wednesday.
“But what we learnt is that the condition is more or less like Sri Lanka and will help the spinners.”
Teams are playing for a winner-take-all purse of US50 000 in the competition organised by All Sport Promotions.
The event will serve as a warm-up for both Bangladesh and the Red Force’s campaign in the upcoming Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa in October.
“I think we will go to the World Cup with good preparation as we have enough opportunity to play T20 matches before the big tournament,” said Islam.
“We also have two warm-up matches in Sri Lanka before the tournament proper”.
Bangladesh’s T20 team is ranked one above Australia at eighth in the current ICC Rankings.
The squad will leave Trinidad and Tobago on September 9 and head straight to Sri Lanka for the ICC World Twenty20.