Cricket: Whatmore expects to give Black Caps a fight

DHAKA - There's no denying Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore plays with a straight bat.

The former Australian test player is frank when assessing his team's challenge on the eve of the first of two tests starting in Dhaka today against New Zealand.

"New Zealand are a very good team, there's no question about that. They're still missing a couple of players in Shane Bond and Daryl Tuffey, but any team we plays we're expected to lose," he said.

"There have been some good positive signs from earlier tests this year with Bangladesh putting together a couple of good sessions, so we need to improve on that and be more competitive. We're going out there to give them a good fight."

New Zealand should extinguish any fire the hosts can muster, with the fledging team having a tough initiation to tests since their inception in 2000.

They have played 30 tests, lost 27 - 18 by an innings or more - and have drawn three. Two draws were due to the weather, but Whatmore can see a bright spot on the horizon just when cries from commentators to strip Bangladesh of test status increase in pitch.

"It's a developing team. We're exposing some young players to test match cricket but we're definitely making progress. We're now taking games to the fifth day," he said.

He cites as progress Bangladesh's second-to-last test against the West Indies in May when they scored 416 in the first innings and 217 declared in their drawn match in St Lucia.

Though they are back home, Whatmore doesn't expect playing at the 35,000-seat Bangabadhu National Stadium to assist his team too much.

"We haven't played here for a year. It's a typical sub-continent wicket, being slow, and it will dust up a bit, so we're expecting a difficult time from Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman."

Whatmore also has a decent spin bowler in his camp, with slow left-armer Mohammed Rafique expected to be their trump card.

He has 36 wickets from 12 tests at an average of 31.60, and took two five-wicket bags in the tests against England here last October.

However, injury concerns hover over their captain Habibul Bashar, who is recovering from thumb surgery he had last month.

New Zealand's Mathew Sinclair is expected to be fit after retiring injured on Saturday in their drawn practice match against the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI.

Sinclair, who is likely to open the batting with Mark Richardson, took two toe-crushing deliveries which saw him hobble from the field.

The teams

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (c), Mathew Sinclair, Mark Richardson, Scott Styris, Nathan Astle, Hamish Marshall, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, James Franklin, Paul Wiseman, Ian Butler (one to be omitted).

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (c), Rajin Saleh, Khaled Masud, Javed Omar, Mushfiqur Rahman, Hannan Sarker, Alok Kapali, Mohammed Ashraful, Mohammed Rafique, Manjurul Islam, Tapash Baishya, Alamgir Kabir, Tareq Aziz Khan, Nafis Iqbal.

- NZPA