Mortaza And Siddons With Different Views On The Tour
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 captain was not happy with his team’s performance on the tour despite a historic win against England. The visitors beat England in a One Day International at Bristol, but Mortaza focused more on the embarrassing losses to Ireland and Netherlands. He said that a loss against the Associate nations (Ireland and Netherlands) was not acceptable and that the team had to step up and take responsibility for the losses. He recognized the win against England as important, but stressed that an overall improvement was needed.
“There were some issues like losing the toss in both the matches [against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 and Netherlands] and the conditions but still I believe the players should take responsibility for the defeats. We didn't play well and that's why we lost the matches. I am very much aware of the fact that everybody shared the joy when we won the match [against England] but players are only responsible when we lose.” Mortaza said in a press conference on their return to Bangladesh.
“We should have won the series against Ireland against whom we secured a 3-0 victory at home. We will get some time before the World Cup and we must rectify the mistakes we made in the last series. I'm really concerned with our bowling. We should focus on this area ahead of the World Cup. I believe this team has got the quality to play much better cricket than the performance had against the two weak teams,” he said.
Unlike Mortaza, Jamie Siddons had different views, taking a more positive look at the tour. He focused on the win over England and gave the batsmen credit, who he believed had performed brilliantly in tough conditions. He did admit that they could have performed better against Ireland and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 but he revealed he thought the toss was one of the main reasons for the poor result against Ireland and Netherlands.
“You've got to listen to the whole story. The ground was under covers for five days and was under water four days earlier. Had we won the toss we would have had a chance. You weren't there; you don't understand what the wicket was like, what the conditions were like. The pitch was damp, we missed two catches and bowling was poor so we lost the game [against Netherlands]. Don't be dramatic over that loss; it was a 30-overs game not a 50-overs game. Why don't you remember the win against England? It was a fantastic win,” he said.
Siddons blamed the hectic travelling schedule, which he believed took its toll on the team and affected their performance. “You don't understand how much rushed we were to travel, we didn't get time to practice. There were real excuses. I think the team performed reasonably well and shouldn't have lost that game yesterday, but we did and we got to move on. We remember the win against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 [in Cardiff] ten years later but we forgot the win against England two days later. That's not really fair.”
Tags: