27 March - Wellington - Bangladesh Captain Nigar Sultana post-match press conference
Reporter: Congratulations on a memorable World Cup tournament. Although the results haven't gone your way just looking back. What do you want to take home from this particular tournament the way you played through the course of the World Cup?
Nigar Sultana: Yeah, I think of how our bowlers bowled through the tournament, it was brilliant. And I guess some of the individual performances were there. I have to name Fargana Hoque, she was brilliant with the bat and Salma Khatoon as a bowler. In the last couple of matches, Lata played very well. And obviously, we couldn't perform as a team maybe and how we batted through the tournament it was not up the mark, I guess. I think in the future, we need to work on that. And obviously we gained a lot of experience here. And obviously we want to work on that in the future, so that we can improve on that.
Reporter: Bangladesh is the only team that hasn't conceded over 250 runs against any team in this World Cup. How big a feat is that considering the stature of the top teams you have competed against in this World Cup?
Nigar: Obviously you can see from the first matches till last match our spinners have dominated here. So I think it was a good sign for us. And obviously, I think we need to carry forward that in the future also. And we had a good World Cup, I guess and we have some good memories from here. So, we just want to looking forward to playing well in the future.
Rumana and Salma went passed 50 ODI wickets and Farzana went passed 1000 a word on them please.
Nigar: Obviously I'm very proud of them and the those players actually contributed for the team. It was brilliant and I wish they play more for Bangladesh and we are eagerly waiting for them to achieve more.
Reporter: Nigar, in the end, your World Cup ended with a defeat, but it seems to be BCA's primary goal in the World to defeat Pakistan. That has happened and we have seen a few more matches, you lost very close to the West Indies and there was a chance to win against South Africa. All in all, how successful would you call your World Cup journey and how happy you are in terms of expectation?
Nigar: First of all, we didn't just come to the World Cup to beat Pakistan, that's not really the case. We have definitely tried match by match because if you think about the name here, you will see that every team could not score big against us. So I think our bowlers have dominated other teams a lot. Our batters or the batting unit collapsed, which is why we could not win the matches but if we could have batted better in 2-3 matches, then it would have been better for us. And you will see that against Pakistan our 4-5 batters in the top order were able to bat long and in that match, we were able to score 230+ runs. So from that perspective I think, we have a lot of time to actually work in those places in the future. And of course in the world cup, I think there are a lot of individual performances that if we think about them then I am very very happy for them. And of course, I want them to continue this performance in the future. And I think as a team we still have a lot of places where we need improvement. If we can work on these in the future and combinedly if this team can play more and more international matches then I think we can overcome these issues.
Reporter: Another question, Nigar, with this World Cup do you think you have caught the attention of the world cricket or can you expect to get more matches from now on?
Nigar: Yes, of course. Now you see we have entered into ICC's FTP which is why we will play many bilateral series now. We will play a lot more matches with the top seven teams at home and away which will help us to hone our skills a lot. We have always said that we play fewer matches which is why it seems that suddenly in a big tournament like the World cup event, we get a chance to play against these big teams. So, I think the more matches we play against these teams, the more we will learn and the winning percentage against them will increase. The reason for this is that many times these situations cannot be overcome due to playing fewer matches. Sometimes it is under control and sometimes it is not. Somehow the potential that we had or still have, we were not able to convert it into the performance but I think since we have a lot of opportunities ahead, we will play a lot of series against them, so then we will be more improved.
Reporter: Personally for you, since you captained a big tournament for the first time, what were the most memorable moments for you, it could be on the field or if there is a conversation with the players of other teams behind the scenes if you can please tell us about them.
Nigar:Yes, as a leader I think since this is the first World cup for me, I have a lot of good memories. Individually you will see the performance of some players, as a team, I think everyone has worked hard even before coming to this world cup and throughout the tournament but everyone has worked very hard. And whenever I used someone in the field, in bowling, they helped me immensely which will always be memorable for me, and of course, the Pakistan match will be more memorable for us. Because that is our first win in the World Cup. And throughout the tournament we were there as a family, a full family together in the entire journey, in fact, we were together when we won, we enjoyed a lot, even when we lost the match but we were together. So our team bonding has always been very strong for which I feel very proud. I think if this same team we can play together again for another 1-2 years, play more and more matches, I think this team will one day be able to come out as one of the top-ranking teams in the world.
Reporter: You said a very valid point after the Australia match that since there is so much difference in your playing experience, they had the experience of playing about 246 matches and you had 48 at that time. The two big teams that played for the first time in this format, Australia and England, what is the major takeaway or learnings from that for you?
Nigar: Nigar: Basically we have played more T20s since 2016 but we have played well against the teams beyond Top 8 rankings. We used our skills there but I don't think we were in such a tough situation or the learning area was less because we won against them. So when you come up against a tough opponent then you have to be tested, what is your skill or what is your potential. I think the more we get into such tough situations, the more we will learn how to handle them.
Of course, in the match between Australia and England, we saw that the bowlers performed incredibly well and 1-2 individual batters performed very well which I think will help them a lot for their career in the future. And of course, as a team, I think playing against them was a huge experience for us and they had some top players in batting where our bowlers bowled against them well and they batted very well against their top bowlers and scored runs. I think this is a learning side for us and in the future if we keep these things in mind or we can develop the skill more then our results against them will be better.
Reporter: Nigar, last question. In this tournament, we saw that your fielding and bowling were of very good quality, batting needs to be improved maybe. If you can please share insight on how you can make that batting better on the way to the next World Cup and how you can make the 2025 World Cup more memorable for Bangladesh?
Nigar: I think the batting unit has to perform on a stage like in the world cup. Only when you put a decent score on the board, the bowlers will help you to defend it. so somehow we failed in terms of batting, I think. And it happens to many, including me, that we're getting set, even after being set, there are a lot of batsmen like me who are collapsing even after scoring 20-25 runs. So we have to have a tendency to play long and I think it will be possible, already our cricket board has planned to make the games at our domestic level more competitive. And there we have the idea of playing some more tournaments where we'll form some 4-5 teams with a number of our players to make it competitive and tough matches where we will have to think more about how to win matches in those situations. And of course, I think everyone is very good in terms of skills but all we need is experience. And the more we play matches the more skilled the batters will be in the future and be able to perform.