Bulbul admits World Cup prep ‘not ideal’ for Tigresses

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul conceded that the women's team's preparations for the upcoming ICC Women's ODI World Cup have been far from ideal.

The tournament begins on September 30 in India and Sri Lanka, with the Tigresses set to leave for Colombo on September 23.  

The Tigresses secured their place in the World Cup after scraping through the qualifiers in Pakistan in April of this year. Since then, however, their build-up has been limited to training camps and practice matches against age-level men's sides as the BCB failed to arrange any international series.

While the men's team had a preparatory series against the Netherlands in August ahead of the ongoing Asia Cup, the women's side have not played international cricket since the qualifiers. Their last domestic action was the Women's Dhaka Premier League, staged before the qualifying tournament.

The Tigresses have since held camps in Sylhet and BKSP, where they played practice matches against Sylhet Division's U-17 men's team in July and the U-15 national side in August. Efforts to organize bilateral series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and West Indies fell through due to scheduling conflicts, with the West Indies also failing to qualify for the World Cup.

Asked whether the preparations were satisfactory, BCB president Bulbul admitted the shortcomings.

"Obviously it's not ideal preparation, but we still tried. We qualified at the late end, and there was limited time. I saw their batting session today at the nets and they are ready for competitive cricket. Also, our U-15 men's and women's teams are quite strong opponents," Bulbul told reporters on Friday.

This will be Bangladesh's second appearance at a Women's ODI World Cup. In the 2022 edition in New Zealand, they registered only one win (against Pakistan) and lost all other matches. How far they can go this time after a poor build-up remains to be seen.