Batsmen face Kiwi bowlers in practice!

Dhaka, Dec 3 (bdprem.com) – Bangladesh's new Australian coach Jamie Siddons Monday lived up his promise of evolving innovative practice sessions for the Tigers ahead of upcoming New Zealand tour this month. Your Ad Here The batsmen faced pace bowlers from the national team and the National Cricket Academy, who sported the one-day jersey of New Zealand and bowled on an 18-yard pitch instead of the 22-yard strip at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The idea, according to Siddons, behind the bowlers wearing the Black Caps' jersey is to give the batsmen a feel that they are taking on the Kiwis in New Zealand. The cricketers had a fitness test on the first day of the training. "We have done it to give them a very similar look to the New Zealand team," Siddons told reporters during the practice session. "They wear black jersey, put the emblem. Not exactly one-day uniform, but close to them. The close we can get to the New Zealand team, the better. "Some of the performances [Bangladesh] have put up around the world in the years suggest they are very good players. We've just got to make them better so that they can be consistent," he said. Asked if this was something unique, Siddons said, "I've never seen it done. I have no doubt it is a pretty obvious addition to training. If you can get the jersey, then why not?" Bangladesh bowlers are not as fast as the New Zealanders are, which is why Siddons shortened the length of wicket to get the net bowlers bowl as fast as Kiwis quickies Shane Bond and Mark Gillespie do. "We have got some wickets in my right with our national bowlers bowling to the national batsmen. Some of the bowlers are bowling over the mark which is good. They seem like New Zealand bowlers. "They are lot quicker than our net bowlers. Just a bit of different thing going at the nets session, a couple of new thing," said the 43-year old coach. Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful was appreciative of the initiative. "We find some 10 km speed difference between our bowlers and other bowlers in the international matches, and I think we will benefit in facing Shane Bond and Mark Gillespie in New Zealand after practising on the 18-yard pitch." Siddons said he had not set any personal goals and wanted to see improvement in coming days. "I just want to see improvement every day, to improve the players' performance every day and make them better players every day. So every day we train I expect them to work hard and improve. There are no long-term goals but day by day we'll try to improve our cricket." On his predecessor Dav Whatmore's legacy, he said "I said to the players during my presentation yesterday (Sunday) that Dav has left a great legacy. "But I am a new coach with new ideas, new vision, new goals which the players will help me set and hopefully it will be a fresh start for a lot of players who have been labeled along the way. So everyone's got a new opportunity to set the scene for Bangladesh cricket."