Bangladesh face race for fitness (3 May 1999)

3 May 1999

Bangladesh face race for fitness

Charles Randall

Rob Hunt, the Australian fitness advisor and physiotherapist Bangladesh have brought in for the World Cup, eased himself more comfortably in his pavilion chair and said: "The hardest thing to teach these fellows is the difference between pain and real pain."

Hunt was discussing his Bangladesh charges during Saturday's warm-up game in the sunshine at Finchampstead, a lovely ground in Berkshire flanked on one side by a nine-foot high beech hedge stretching for about a quarter of a mile - and all hand-trimmed.

Hunt, by taking on the Bangladesh job, had entered a different culture - a culture which, in his view, would have to change as preparations staggered into a third week after the initial shock chill. The Australian was determined that acclimatisation would mean more than simply turning up the radiators in their hotel rooms on the Watford bypass.

He surprised his gentle-mannered players by demanding more pride and passion, with no "easy options" and no short cuts in training. "They've responded generally quite well," he said with a sigh before turning to the subject of pain. "They just couldn't grasp the concept that muscle soreness is part and parcel of fitness as opposed to injury pain."

Bangladesh travel to Chelmsford today for the final run-up to the tournament. In the field against the club players of Finchampstead they looked enthusiastic enough under the captaincy of Aminul Islam, but not a group of Muslim fitness machines, with Akram Khan, 32, impressing as a rollicking batsman in the Falstaff mode. Others, in physio jargon, looked a little "lardy".

Whatever Hunt's exhortations, Akram Khan remained quite simply the best batsman, as Finchampstead discovered when he struck 65 off 56 balls. Bangladesh's thin credibility as competitors in the World Cup could depend on this distinctive figure, who achieved hero status among his country's 120 million population as captain in the ICC Trophy triumph two years ago.

Even in England the players, all full-timers or students, found that they had an exalted status among a significant group - Bangladeshi-run High Street Indian restaurants.

Hunt, faithful to his own mantra of togetherness, has had to accompany them for a nightly spice overdose. When he returns to Melbourne, he will probably never eat another curry.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

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