Bangladesh's historic 5-wicket win at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff gave an indication to the 37-year-old coach that he was going to join a very exciting job in a country where a number of young cricketers are coming to rule the game in the near future.

"As an Australian it was a very interesting situation as well as a funny experience for me to see Bangladesh coming through with the world's top team," said de Winter, who replaced his compatriot Richard McInnes in the post.

"I was attending a farewell party arranged by some of my friends when Bangladesh won their game against Australia. They were shocked but for me it was exciting as I was just on way to leaving for Bangladesh," he added yesterday at the Board's Gulshan office.

The ever-smiling Australian, whose contract with the BCB runs till the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, was very excited and optimistic about his new assignment and said there is a opportunity to see the new Test-playing nation at the top of the ICC world rankings within five to six years.

"I think it's just a beginning but everybody certainly realised that Bangladesh has a very good national team. This was a very positive series and I believe it will be a great inspiration for rest of the players. The victory just demonstrated that we have the talent and ability to challenge the top teams," he said.

Having worked for ten days since arriving here on June 23, de Winter has seen a lot of impressive things to fulfil his dream.

"I have already visited the BKSP several times to have sessions with the Bangladesh A team and I was very pleased with the facilities in the sports institute. The players are very talented and I am looking forward to working with the guys."

De Winter pointed out two areas to work on the young Bangladeshi cricketers to develop their skills and make them competitive at the highest level of the game.

"I don't think there is any major problem with the technique but the problem lies in their mental and physical strength. I think lack of patience is one of the reasons behind their weakness. It was exposed mostly in the five-day games during the tour of England," detected de Winter.

"I must seriously continue Richard's work but at the same time, I will do it in my own way and style. To me, technology is just a component in the whole job. It is important how the players respond to the planning. I want to emphasise on communication," he explained.

When asked whether it is wise to push under-19 players straight into the national team or not, he said: "There is an argument around the world for or against it. I am not totally against it. You see West Indies picked Richie Richardson at a very early age while India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka do it consistently. If there is a better player we give him the opportunity because it is the selectors' duty to field the best team and it doesn't matter where the player comes from."

But he was also concerned about the need of a good first-class structure to make an impression in the game.

"We need to explore all the opportunities and we need to introduce a solid system to produce quality players," said de Winter, who had an experience of playing first-class cricket for Tasmania under the captaincy of famous Australian opener David Boon from 1986-90.

As a high performance manager de Winter wants to have equal focus on other areas involving cricket like coaching and umpiring.

"I don't want to see our players at the top level or the coaches and others struggle. I must seriously look after those areas," he promised.

De Winter said that it would be nice if he could share his knowledge with national coach Dav Whatmore.

"I played against Dav in domestic competition. He was playing for Victoria. It will be nice if I can share my knowledge with him but there's nothing wrong in it if it does not happen because we have different jobs," said de Winter who will begin the Under-19 camp in mid-July with 26 cricketers for October's tour of Sri Lanka.