HP camp starts in Dhaka

Bangladesh Cricket Board’s High-Performance Team’s camp started in Dhaka on Wednesday, which is being done for the team’s participation in the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in July.

25 players have been called up for the camp, including the likes of Shamim Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, Rishad Hossain, and Mahmudul Hasan Joy, who have already featured for the national team.

Five players were unavailable on the first day as they were busy with Bangladesh A side – Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Shahadat Hossain, Ripon Mondol, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, and Rishad hossain.

The camp is under the guidance of an eight-member coaching panel, headed by David Hemp, who is the former head coach of the Pakistan Women’s National Team and has a two-year contract with BCB. The coaching panel also consists of Dr David Scott, who is an expert on behaviour change and performance enhancement in sports, as the Sports Psychologist.

The camp in Dhaka will continue until May 31, and then move to Rajshahi from June 1 to 8, before ending in Bogura, where the camp will be from June 9 to 26. The first phase of the camp in Dhaka has been split into three parts including physical screening and fitness tests.

Ahead of the camp, Hemp said that the success for the overall HP project would be based on how many players transition from this team to the Bangladesh A team and then the national team.

“We are trying to help players achieve their goal, which is, in essence, to play for the Bangladesh national side. We provide that platform where players can learn and grow, and step up into that next group – the A team. From that, they can go into the main national side.

“How do we measure it? I think success will be around how many players we transition through this program into the next program above. The important thing is that they stay within those teams and don’t drop off,” the HP side coach said.

He also implied that they would prepare players in accordance with the national team’s needs, and that they might use doctored pitches to make players suited to all conditions.

“We can decide how we prepare players. We can doctor wickets to help prepare for conditions. We want to align with what Chandika (Hathurusinghe) and the national side wants, in terms of what players they are looking for, and what that skillset deficit is. Players have to be good enough to adapt and grow. We can produce players in Bangladesh who play in all conditions in all the countries around the world,” Hemp told the media at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.