LEADING FROM THE FRONT

Bangladesh national women’s team has been passing golden time in their cricketing history — they have won 12 of their last 14 Twenty20 internationals. They have recently become champions in the ICC Women’s World T20 qualifiers in the Netherlands. The success in the qualifiers came just after they had brought the biggest silverware of the country’s cricket history, the Asia Cup, by defeating six-time champions India in the final in Malaysia this June. Between the two successes, Bangladesh team also defeated Ireland 2-1 in a three-match Twenty20 series in Dublin, thereby heightening their level of confidence for the forthcoming ICC Women’s World Twenty20, scheduled in West Indies November 9-24.
Bangladesh Twenty20 skipper Salma Khatun talks to Samsul Arefin Abir on their recent triumph, hard-earned glory and plans for the upcoming ICC Women’s World Twenty20 or T20.

How does it feel to play well continuously and win major tournaments consistently?
It’s really a great feeling as we have been playing really well for the last two months. Our main target of this tour was to qualify for the World T20 and we successfully achieved the target. We are going to play in the World Cup and we were preparing ourselves for that during the Ireland and the Netherlands tours. In the Netherlands, our most important match was against Scotland in the semi-final. The equation was if we could win the match then we will be playing in the World Cup. It’s not like that other matches were not important but for qualification we had to win that game. I can’t express my joy in words as we achieved our target as well as became champions in the qualifiers.

In 2015, Bangladesh lost to Ireland in the qualifiers final though the team had already won the Asia Cup. Does your side have any determination to become champions before going to play in the qualifiers this year?

Before going to the Netherlands, we went to Ireland and played three T20s over there. We had the target to beat them after losing to them in the qualifiers final in 2015. We had the confidence to defeat them this time as we are the Asian champions. I think the confidence and consistent performances helped us to win the tournament.

Actually we didn’t play that worse in South Africa. We lost the games but we did quite well over there. We have learned a lot from there. Fahim (Nazmul Abedin) sir was with us and he pointed out the areas where we were lacking and needed to pay attention and that gave us confidence to do well.

Bangladesh had a terrible series against South Africa earlier this year. How can your side manage a turn-around in a short span of time?

Actually we didn’t play that worse in South Africa. We lost the games but we did quite well over there. We have learned a lot from there. Fahim (Nazmul Abedin) sir was with us and he pointed out the areas where we were lacking and needed to pay attention and that gave us confidence to do well. He worked with us after the series and advised us how we can perform well and win matches. His ‘Yes, we can do it’ attitude was infectious.

Asia Cup champions or ICC World T20 Qualifiers champions? What was your biggest achievement?

I think that Asia Cup triumph was the biggest success in my life. India was the champions in the last six events and we could only reach to the semi-finals before this year. Our ambition was to do something special this time and we were getting good supports from Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), and having Fahim sir as our new coach made a huge difference. I think if the support continues, then our girls would continue to do well.

Anju Jain was appointed head coach of the women’s team at the end of South Africa tour and Bangladesh started to get success right after she resigned. Do you think the change to the coaching staff helped your side to ensure success?

With the girl’s team, there were frequent changes to the coaching staff in the last couple of years. No one was there for a longer period. We were often telling the BCB to get a coach for us who would stay longer. Each coach has his or her own way of training the troupe. I think that Anju Jain deserves credit for our success to an extent. I think she is a great coach since she had the experience to work with Indian team. Had she continued for a longer period, I feel our girls would have benefited.

What do you think contributed to the turning point?

I will count everything that finally led to the turning point. We are playing with the same players. After Fahim sir joined as a coach, he gave us some clear guidelines. It was a great opportunity for us and the girls to finally have someone who would watch us closely and advice towards improvement. Previously this was the prerogative of the men’s team. We had one or two good scorers. But, now if someone gets out early on in the match, there are other players who can chip in. There has been an increased at the level of confidence and aptitude. I am hopeful that we would do much better in future.

You were regarded as one of the finest all-rounders, but now you play as a lower order batsman. What was the reason behind it?

All of us have been doing really well actually. In T20 matches, you hardly get a chance to bat. I had to do what is good for my team. So I am batting in the lower order. Insallah, I will be back to middle-order if I feel it would benefit the team in the future.

What will be your team’s target for the forthcoming ICC Women’s World T20?

It will be a great experience to play with big oppositions. Now all the teams are paying us respect for our performances. We may not always win against them, but our target will be to learn something from the tournament. Obviously, we are targeting good results in the tournament.