Naveed Nawaz, who helped Bangladesh win the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, is back as the coach of the Youth team. He aims to use his successful methods to win the 2026 World Cup.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) brought Nawaz back after deciding not to renew Stuart Law’s contract. Law was the head coach for the 2024 Under-19 World Cup, but he has since joined the USA men’s national team.
Nawaz, who was an assistant coach for Sri Lanka’s men’s team for the past two years, said that the new batch of Under-19 players in Bangladesh will have high expectations, just like he does.
“This expectation is on the players as well in a country like Bangladesh, where people are almost crazy about cricket,” Nawaz said. “They love the game so much. Players will carry the burden of expectations. Coming back to Bangladesh after winning the [Under-19] World Cup in 2020, obviously there will be expectations [on me], but I think I have to focus on other things. It has been four years since winning the World Cup. There’s a lot of work to be done.
“As always, BCB has laid down a brilliant programme like in the past. We will put our shared experience, we will cover every base that this group of boys will face in the next two years. We want to give them as much experience as possible. Give them the confidence, help them grow. Players are the main carriers of this game. We must create a happy environment for the players. They have to make decisions independently. Coaches will help them make better decisions in the future. That’s what we did four years ago. It produced results for us. The basics haven’t changed yet.”
Bangladesh’s 2020 victory led to several players joining the senior team. Shoriful Islam, Towhid Hridoy, Tanzid Hasan, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, Parvez Hossain, Rakibul Hasan, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Shahadat Hossain, Shamim Hossain, and Tanzim Hasan Sakib have all debuted internationally in the last four years.
Nawaz plans to travel around the country to find talented cricketers. He will then work with age-group selectors to identify the players needed for the 2026 Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia.
“The plan is very simple for the next two years,” he said. “We know what type of cricket the U-19 boys play all over the world. There’s been a lot of visibility. My first job would be to sit with the selectors, to see what are the [pieces of the] puzzles that match. What type of talent do we have to make a great team, that can win.
“We want to understand the talent from worldwide and try to put in all the benchmarks in our players and try to reach it in two years. That’s what we did before. We want to build a team in two years that can compare with any other country without any fear.”
However, Nawaz emphasized that becoming a successful senior player takes time and effort. Teenagers don’t become superstars overnight. “We unearth a lot of talent in age-group cricket in countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. International cricket is so challenging that even if you are very talented at the ages of 18, 19 or 20, it doesn’t tell the story that you are going to be a superstar by the age of 25 or 30.
“Cricket is a lot more analytical than before; oppositions find you out very quickly. It is about the players being able to work their way out, to understand and rectify their game. You can’t be holding a technical or mental issue for too long. You have to get over it. BCB will look into it in the High Performance or higher age-group programmes where you give the players confidence to perform at higher stages.”
