Rahim "yeah, im confident about my squad. looking forward to achieve something that didn't happened upto now. Yeah hope's still there and new a squad & i do believe that we can make the difference. yeah lets hope for the best"
Bangladesh could not have asked for a better destination to play cricket than the West Indies in these late-summer months. The beaches, mountains and the reggae immediately spring to mind but that is just part of it; this is one of only two places in the world from where Bangladesh have departed feeling better than when they arrived.
Having won nothing this year, without their best player, and with a new coaching crew in charge, they should be happy to be playing at a place where they have reached several milestones. On their first tour there, in 2004, they took the lead for the first time, declared an innings and eventually drew abroad without the help of rain for the first time. Three years later, Bangladesh's best World Cup campaign was in the West Indies, when they beat India to move into the Super Eights where they outplayed South Africa.
In 2009 they landed in the West Indies only to hear of a players' strike that eventually had them playing against what was effectively a third eleven. They went on to pick up their first overseas Test-series win, as well as a maiden away ODI-series victory outside Zimbabwe. The following year they were knocked out of the World T20 in the Caribbean in the first round, but not before resisting well against Pakistan and Australia.
But the performances in 2004, 2007 and 2009 are high-water marks in the history of Bangladesh cricket. The expectation from the 2014 group should not be the same, but confidence and positivity can be derived from those past tours. Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mashud and Mohammad Rafique scored centuries in the same Test in 2004, the only time that has happened in a Bangladesh team. Tapash Baisya and the late Manzarul Islam did a fine job with the ball in that year's ODI series.
In the 2007 World Cup, it was the coming out party for Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Abdur Razzak and Shakib Al Hasan while Mohammad Ashraful staged a mini-revival of his career with unbeaten knocks in the first round and 87 against South Africa in the second phase. Shakib and Tamim were running the show two years later, with help from Mahmudullah.
