Black Caps focus on 2011 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh
With almost 4 months left in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the most popular cricket event played under the flagship of ICC, the international cricket teams have accelerated their preparation for the big tournament. Bengali tigers and the Kiwis are testing
each other’s mettle at Shere Bangla Stadium in Mirpur these days with their focus on the preparations for the tournament to be held in the subcontinent earlier next year.
The New Zealand tour to Bangladesh was initially meant to include five-dayer as well but the sides agreed to focus on limited-over cricket to focus primarily on preparations for the next year’s World Cup. The visiting captain Daniel Vettori, who has just
returned to the side after enjoying his time with the family, opined that playing under Bangladesh conditions ahead of World Cup would give his team a good standing. The New Zealand team, according to Vettori, is quite blessed to visit all the three hosting
countries of the World Cup ahead of the big tournament.
"I think we are pretty lucky as a New Zealand team to experience Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India before the ICC Cricket World Cup," said Vettori.
Bangladesh is also one of the three joint hosts of the prestigious quadrennial event besides India and Sri Lanka and for visiting New Zealand side; this tour of Bangladesh is the extension of their exposure to the condition of subcontinent ahead of the World
Cup. The Kiwis earlier travelled to Sri Lanka a month ago to play a tri-nation series with India and Sri Lanka, the other two teams of that tri-series. In the last stage of their sub-continental exposure programme, the tourists would be visiting India next
month to play five more ODIs before heading back to home to play a home series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
Vettori said that the Kiwis are quite excited to play a world cup in the sub continent and would try to get the best possible warm-up from these tours of Bangladesh and India.
"We are going to get the best possible warm-up and any game time in the sub-continent is going to make a huge difference to our chances in the ICC Cricket World Cup. So, the guys are excited about it.”
By mid-December, The Champions Trophy runners-up will have played each of the next year’s World Cup co-hosts on their home grounds. Before taking on turbulent Pakistan side at home, the Black caps would hope to have established on their preferred World Cup
squad. 31-year-old all-rounder expressed satisfaction on the preparations saying that it’s going pretty well.
"I know the preparations are going pretty well. The fact that we will play some one-dayers in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 gives us the best preparation leading into such an important tournament," said Vettori.
In the ongoing tour of Bangladesh, New Zealand side has been strengthened by the return of its three key players, skipper Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder. Both Vettori and McCullum missed the Sri Lanka tri-nation series due to their family
commitments, while Ryder was ruled out of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tamim-Iqbal-c2640 who was ruled out of the series following his right wrist surgery last month.
A 5-0 whitewash of Bangladesh would earn Vettori’s men fifth spot ahead of Strauss’s men, while a defeat in any of the five matches would make them lose rating points. So far New Zealand and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 winning 16, whereas
one match ended in favour of the Bengali tigers.
Tags: