Series set for Bangladesh women’s teams

While the Bangladesh men's team are currently participating in cricket's biggest event -- the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup -- in England, Bangladesh's women cricketers have been toiling hard at the Shaheed Kamaruzzaman Divisional Stadium in Rajshahi ahead of their tour of South Africa and other upcoming events such as the T20 world cup, to be held next year.

The training camp in Rajshahi began on June 23 and will end on July 15.

The Bangladesh national women's team became champions of Asia when they defeated India by three wickets in the final of the Women's T20 Asia Cup in June last year. After that, the buoyant Tigresses were expected to carry their form into the upcoming Women's T20 World Cup in November of the same year. However, Bangladesh failed miserably and had to return from West Indies without a single win under their belt.

It has been over seven months since that tournament in the Caribbean, and Bangladesh have not yet played a single international fixture during this period. And as is evident, many cricketers also mentioned that it is the long gaps in between international fixtures that prevents them from carrying their form into big events.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) women's cricket wing development manager Nazmul Abedin Fahim explained the reason behind such long intervals.

"We had a series slated against Sri Lanka last April and May. Unfortunately it could not happen.

"We are not listed in the FTP (ICC-Future Tours Program) schedules. Therefore, the better teams don't want to play with us. But, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is trying to arrange bilateral series with other cricket playing nations." said Fahim.

However, Fahim also mentioned that the BCB has already looked into the matter and taken initiatives to help develop women's cricket.

"As we had only national team earlier and we were working for them only. Now we have already formed an A team for the first time and are also planning to form an under-19 team this year to get better players for the future." said an optimistic Fahim.

In contrast to last year, Bangladeshi women will be playing a lot more cricket this year, informed the BCB women's wing manager.

"We have a lot of away series this year. Bangladesh women's A team are going South Africa for the first time on 19 July to play three unofficial ODI and T20 matches against South African emerging players. The series will be held from 23 July to August 4.

One week later, the Bangladesh ational women's team will fly for Netherland. They will play four T20 practice matches against the hosts and Thailand between August 15 and 27.

"After the Netherland tour, the Tigresses will fly for the ICC Women World T20 Qualifier-2019 in Scotland, scheduled to begin on August 31. And at the end of October, they will visit Pakistan to play their last series of the year. They will play two ODIs and three T20s against the Pakistan national women's team," said the BCB official.