The National cricket squad arrived in Dhaka yesterday morning at the start of their first full tour of Bangladesh. Graeme Smith’s 13-man squad contains just three players who were here in 1998 when South Africa won the ICC Mini-World Cup Tournament. Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini and Alan Dawson are the survivors along with Manager Goolam Rajah.
The squad arrival was low key but the welcome from local officials and media was warm. However, five pieces of luggage failed to arrive, turning up instead on the other side of the world, in Atlanta, Georgia. Assurances have been given that Paul
Adams, Mark Boucher, assistant coach Corrie van Zyl and physio Shane Jabaar would be re-united with their belongings today.
Adams in fact had to borrow shoes from Jabaar for the afternoon’s training session at the Banabandhu National Stadium.
The 39 degree heat soon had the squad drenched in perspiration as they shook out the flight stiffness with a game of touch rugby before an impressively intense net session. The net facilities are, like so many in the sub-continent, situated on the out-field of the stadium, and although they were a little dusty they proved to be
very true in bounce and pace.
Smith, on his first assignment as South Africa’s youngest captain, was pleased to be finally getting down to work: ”It’s been a little hectic at home with all the changes and the reaction to our World Cup performance, it’s nice to finally get on with playing the game. I am really looking forward to this tournament. We have a lot of work to do and this is a great place to start.”
The hotel pool proved to be a popular choice for the post-training warm-down and stretching session. As was the hotel restaurant for an early dinner.
The squad will train at the same venue today before playing a warm-up game against Bangladesh A on Friday. The TVS Triangular ODI Series starts on Friday when India, minus at least five of their top players — Tendulkar, Dravid, Srinath,
Nehra and Kumble — take on Bangladesh.
South Africa enters the fray on Sunday with a game against India. – Sapa