England one-day cricket captain Adam Hollioake wants a repetition of their last year's Sharjah success from his side in the Wills International Cup billed for an October 24 start at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
The Surrey all-rounder who led England to their successful four-nation Champions' Trophy in Sharjah last December, was talking to a host of local sports journalists at Hotel Sonargaon last evening, an hour after his team arrived in the capital.
``My mission here in Dhaka is to win three games and the competition. And if we can do that I will be pretty happy,'' said the handsome English captain, who has the experience of leading England in twelve one-day internationals in his short 19-match carrier.
``It's a specialist one-day side -- maybe not all of them are famous players, but they are all very good one-day players. So, we will definitely be competitive,'' said Adam when asked about his team's strength.
When asked whether he felt any extra pressure for being chosen to lead only the one-day side, Adam, who has seven players from the Champions' Trophy winning side, said, ``I don't think I am the one-day specialist captain because Alec (Stewart) is the captain. But he has to go out to Australia. And I don't feel any pressure because I had been asked to do the same job in the past, to captain my country. I will just do my best.''
``If we can manage the cup here, that will be a big boost for us ahead of the World Cup proper. But if we lose the first game, it will not help us in any way other than gaining some experience. That will benefit the team.''
About the friendly match against Bangladesh, Adam said that they were taking the match very seriously.
David Lloyd, the England coach, said that he will be looking forward to this tournament after a busy season back home.
``I think we are fortunate that we could come to Bangladesh a few days prior to the game against South Africa. And we have two friendly matches, if we can play friendly matches, because I don't know what friendly cricket really is. We will play Bangladesh and also Zimbabwe, which again helps us along the way in the number of limited over matches that we play,'' said David.
David Graveney, the manager of the team, who is also the chief selector of England, said that they were still in search of an ideal one-day side for next year's World Cup.
``Our decision to field a separate one-day side in Sharjah clicked very well. If this team can do the same here, then I think it will be easier for us to select a team for the World Cup. We are still in the process and nothing can be said in advance,'' said Graveney.
Zimbabwe rings for Dhaka support
While the England team appeared still immersed in the euphoria of the Champions' Trophy success, the Zimbabweans seemed very much more aware of their strength.
``We have got no illusions about our ranking. We know we are ranked ninth in the world and that's why we are playing the only pre-quarterfinal here against New Zealand,'' said Zimbabwe skipper Alistair Campbell, one of the four cricketers in the team who toured Bangladesh in the 1993-94 season along with his deputy Andy Flower, his twin brother Grant Flower and right-arm medium-pacer Heath Streak.
``We are playing quite well for the last eighteen months against the powerful sides. Although we lost the one-day series against India at home recently, we have beaten them in the one-off Test match. So certainly the morale of the team is very high,'' said Campbell.
``We have seen in the last one year that many times we came close to winning against some powerful teams but then eventually we lost because of our own poor finishing. That is the only point where we hardly have any excuse. And if we can win a match here that will be pretty good because then we will have the chance of meeting World Champions Sri Lanka in the quarter-final.
``Fielding is our plus point and we have a good set of fielders in the team,'' said Campbell while talking about his team's strength.
``It will be very important for us to win a match here,'' added Campbell.
``The public demand is very high with Zimbabwe these days and we will try our best to perform here. We have the experience of playing in the sub-continent and I think that will help us a great deal,'' said Campbell.
When asked which teams he considers the hardest to beat, Campbell said that all the teams were competitive adding,'' It's very difficult to make any early comment about which team is going to win the Cup.''
About the concept of the knock-out tournament, Campbell said that it would be a different experience for them because the format of the tourney was not similar to any other one-day tournament where teams have a chance even after losing one or two matches in the robin league.
``It's totally a new thing. If you lose you go back home without getting any further chances,'' added Campbell.
About their pre-quarter final opponents New Zealand, Campbell said that New Zealand was a pretty good one-day side and the team playing better on the day would win.
``You have a big crowd in Dhaka as we saw in 1993. I hope they support us against New Zealand.''
Zimbabwe manager M Babu Meman, who was also the manager of the Zimbabwean team which toured Bangladesh in 1993, said that their first aim here in Dhaka was to win the match against New Zealand.
``We will go match by match. If we win against the Kiwis, only then will we think about Sri Lanka whom we are due to meet next in the quarterfinals,'' said Meman.
Army escort teams
Earlier in the day, both England and Zimbabwe cricket teams, two of the nine participating Test playing sides in the Wills International Cup, arrived in the capital and reached their hotel safe and sound.
Zimbabwe, who will take on New Zealand in the inaugural match of the nine-day long knock-out tournament, arrived in the morning while England, who will play South Africa on October 25, landed at ZIA later in the afternoon. Both teams were taken to their hotel under strict security arrangements because of the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the opposition parties. A platoon of Army escorted the teams from ZIA to Hotel Sonargaon.
Teams
England: Adam Hollioake (captain), Ian Austin, Alistair Brown, Dougie Brown, Mark Elham, Neil Fairbrother, Matthew Fleming, Anthony Giles, Graeme Hick, Nick Knight, Graham Lloyd, Peter Martin, Jack Russell and Chris Silverwood.
Officials: David Graveney (manager), David Lloyd (coach), D Conway (Physio) and Brian Murgatroyd (media relations officer).
Zimbabwe: Alistair Campbell (captain), Andy Flower ( vice-captain), Gavin Rennie, Grant Flower, Graig Wishart, Murray Goodwin, Craig Evans, Paul Strang, Heath Streak, Neil Johnson, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Andrew Whittall, Henry Olonga and Adam Huckle.
Officials: M Babu Meman (manager), David Houghton (coach) and Amato Machikicho (Physio) and D Ellman Brown.