‘Playing good cricket not enough in itself’

Bangladesh opener and stand-in ODI captain Tamim Iqbal talked to reporters during a press conference today and gave his views on the recently concluded World Cup campaign and the team's objectives for the series. The skipper said that while the team is missing some senior players, the players are focused on winning the upcoming series in Sri Lanka.

The Tigers had a few good moments during the World Cup and their campaign got off to a dream start when they beat South Africa in their first match of the tournament. However, things did not go the Tigers' way when it mattered and after a few good matches, they ended eighth in the ten-team table.

"I think we had a pretty decent World Cup. We had a few games that we should have won. If you look at the point table you will say that we had a very bad tournament because we ended on eighth. We as cricketers also felt that we could have done more," Tamim reiterated.

"We played some good cricket but we are at a stage where just playing good cricket doesn't matter to us anymore. Winning games is more important than anything else," he added.

Bangladesh team now know that a lot more is expected from them and Tamim placed importance on the upcoming series despite a 'disappointing' World Cup.

"Yes, if you think in that [winning matters] way, we had a disappointing World Cup but I look forward to this series. I think it will be a very important series."

Bangladesh are missing Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mohammad Saifuddin for the Sri Lanka ODIs but Tamim found hope in the Tigers' recent outings in Sri Lanka.

"There are important players who are missing due to personal reasons. I think the squad we have are very capable and playing Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka will be difficult but we have done well here in recent times and I hope we can use that momentum and produce good cricket for Bangladesh," Tamim said.

Bangladesh will play a warm-up match against Sri Lanka Board President's XI tomorrow, July 23 at the P Sara Oval in Colombo before the first ODI on July 26.