|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh national cricket team gets back into business as the conditioning camp of the 35-member squad got underway at the Sher-e Bangla National Stadium on Friday.

Apart from Shakib al Hasan-who is on vacation in USA and Sabbir Rahman- getting married, all the other members of the squad were present on the opening day at the home of cricket.

This the first time cricketers got busy since the recent tour of Sri Lanka where they were humiliated by the islanders as they host cleanly swept them away  in the three-match ODI series following their disappointing outing in the World Cup.

Tigers are looking forward to start their preparation for a new season that kick start with the one-off Test series against Afghanistan followed by a Twenty20 tri-nation involving Zimbabwe as the third team, BCB arranged conditioning camp to have a fresh look at the fitness level of the cricketers ahead of another hectic season.

‘’We are doing the fitness test after eight months. Because we have been playing non-stop cricket since October,’’ Tigers conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan told reporters after the opening days session.

‘’For me and for the players to find out where they are and how we need to push them in the next coming months and so in terms of where they are, satisfied, but not happy,’’ he said.

‘’And it’s understandable because we have not done fitness camp for eight months. So it’s natural, they are not at their best but not bad. So I am happy in that sense,’’ he said.

‘’We did the fitness test to find what is the condition (of the players) in terms of their running fitness, where they are in terms of their strength and others to work on the areas where we need to work on. There are some guys who need to work on their fitness and there are some who are doing well, but they need to improve too,’’ he said

“I’m not going to say how many or mention the names but all of them need to keep improving. Even the guys, who did well, need to improve,’’ he said adding that he does not believe four or five-day’s fitness camp.

‘’Personally I do not think it’s enough. I think I need at least four to six weeks but this is international cricket. We cannot get that kind of time. So we will use our skill camp to do fitness sessions as well to keep improving,’’ he said.

‘’I think the only guy who was not with me (new) was Jahurul and he (also) did quite well and it was good to see,’’ he said.
In the opening day Jahurul Islam, Farhad Reza, Abu Jayed Rahi and Mushfiqur Rahim were standout performer in the fitness test.

Mario said that both Mahmudullah and Saifuddin, who sustained injury earlier, recovered sufficiently to attend the fitness test.

Mahmudullah had shoulder injury while Saifuddin missed the tour of Sri Lanka due to back pain.