SARWAN ... wary of Bangladesh.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP):
RAMNARESH SARWAN said that Bangladesh is an improved team and the West Indies won't be taking them lightly as the two ready for a three-match one-day series starting tomorrow.
"They keep improving," the stand-in captain said at the series launch in St. Vincent yesterday. "I'm sure they are not going to be any pushover."
While the visitors have won just one match out of 50 one-day internationals since the 1999 World Cup in England, the 23-year-old is not exuding overconfidence as he takes charges of only his second match as Brian Lara recovers from a finger injury.
"Myself and the coach and the manager have been speaking to the players after the end of the England series so that we don't underrate anybody," Sarwan said.
STRONGEST
The West Indies split the recently-concluded rubber against England 2-2 and were strongest in back-to-back victories in St. Lucia.
"The biggest concern would be getting complacent against Bangladesh," he said. "It's something that we don't want to happen throughout this series."
Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore, the former Australian batsman, is realistic as he looks forward to his team's first international tour of the West Indies. "Every opposition is formidable to Bangladesh at the moment," he said.
Whatmore added that he wanted his team to be given credit should they upset the odds, citing improvements including Bangladesh's recent victory over Zimbabwe.
"I'd like to think that when Bangladesh wins ... that it's not because the opposition is being complacent," he said "I think there is enough evidence to suggest that the Bangladesh team is on the right track and can push the opposition in every match of this one-day series."
The tourists began their month-long tour on a positive note on Wednesday with a three-wicket victory over a West Indies Board XI in a limited overs match.
Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar said his goal is to gradually climb from the basement of international cricket.
"We've not done that well but we've been improving with every series," he said.
There has been criticism from former players over the past two years suggesting that Bangladesh, rated rock bottom in both forms of the international game, should not be among the game's elite teams at the international level.
DISMAL RECORD
But Bashar says that his side must be given time before they can turn around their dismal record.
"If we are to improve, we have to play cricket against better people," he said. "If we continue to play cricket against better teams, we can only improve."
The one-day series starts with back-to-back matches over the weekend and concludes in Grenada on Wednesday.
SQUADS: WEST INDIES: Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell, Dwayne Smith, Sylvester Joseph, Dwayne Bravo, Ridley Jacobs, Ian Bradshaw, Ravi Rampaul, Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Devon Smith.
Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Khaled Mashud, Khaled Mahmud, Abdur Razzaq, Faisal Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Mohammad Rafique, Tareq Aziz, Tapash Baisya, Rajin Saleh, Manjural Islam Rana, Shahriar Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahman, Hannan Sarkar, Alok Kapali.
