We want to make the most of this opportunity

Bangladesh women’s team captain Nigar Sultana sees the forthcoming ICC Women’s World Cup as a huge opportunity to take the country’s women’s cricket to the next level.

Nigar will have the distinction of leading Bangladesh in its first ever 50-over World Cup in women’s cricket when her side takes the field against South Africa in a group phase match at the University Oval in Dunedin on March 5. All captains at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 have written columns for the ICC ahead of the tournament and in her column, the wicketkeeper-batter expressed how excited she and her team-mates are as they stand on the brink of fulfilling a life-long dream. ‘Playing in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup is a long-awaited dream come true for all of us,’ Nigar wrote in her column which was published at the ICC Online Media Zone on Thursday. ‘We have played three Twenty20 World Cups but have never played an ODI one, so we are very excited and very eager to perform on the biggest stage. We want to make the most of this opportunity and make it count,’ she added. Nigar pointed out how winning the ACC Women’s Asia Cup changed people’s outlook on women’s cricket in Bangladesh.

‘Generally, the outlook of Bangladesh [women’s] cricket changed after our Asia Cup win in 2018. People are showing more interest now because they know the Bangladesh women’s team exists - before that, some people may not even have known that a Bangladesh women’s team existed. ‘The media is showing interest and when we qualified for the World Cup, the whole nation was very happy – you could see that through the reception on social media. The 24-year-old believes that a good showing at the World Cup would boost the country’s women’s cricket further. ‘This competition is a huge opportunity for us because we can show we have potential and we are improving as a team,’ she said. ‘If we do well here, more teams will be interested in playing against us, more international cricket will come to the country and the Bangladesh Cricket Board will try to increase domestic matches as well.’ The women’s team have been in New Zealand for around two weeks to acclimatise to the conditions.