Bonus for ‘big achievement’ awaits Shanto and Co

Following Bangladesh's first-ever home Test win over New Zealand on Saturday, the cricketers are expected to receive a bonus for the historic win.

Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) cricket operations chairman, Jalal Yunus, informed the media about the possibility of the development after Najmul Hossain Shanto and his troops began their third cycle of the World Tests Championship (WTC) with a 150-run win against the winners of the inaugural WTC.

According to Jalal, the win was a "big achievement" and a "much-needed" one for the Tigers.

"They always have bonus on the tip of their tongue. But definitely it will happen as I have spoken with the BCB president. Once they arrive in Dhaka, he will have dinner with the team and I think there may be an announcement and it's (bonus) going to happen," Jalal told the media in Mirpur on Saturday.

 "I think it's a big win and, more importantly, we were able to beat New Zealand at home -- which is a big achievement. As you know New Zealand came with their full-strength side. They have covered all the aspects from the pace, spin and batting unit since it's a part of the World Test Championship. From that point, our boys played brilliantly.

"It was a much-needed win for us. To be able to beat a big team like New Zealand is a different feeling," he added.  

The influential board director further said that this win against New Zealand reflects that the Bangladesh Test team has got enough depth in the pipeline.

"This victory demonstrates that we have players in our pipeline, as many have claimed that we lack depth in Test cricket. If you observe, seven of the eleven players were not in the World Cup squad and are mostly Test players, indicating that we have good depth in this format. We also have a few players in the pipeline who will make their Test debut very soon," he added.

Jalal also emphasised the good team bonding despite the absence of regular skipper Shakib Al Hasan and a few experienced players from the game, and he lauded skipper Shanto's leadership abilities.