Want to help cricketers be the best they can be: David Hemp

Bangladesh High Performance (HP) team's newly appointed head coach David Hemp expressed his desire to bolster the country's pipeline by providing quality cricketers, who can rule in all conditions across the world.

After taking the charge of the HP team today, he said his main job is to help the players be the best they can be by harnessing their natural talent so that they are able to be a quality cricketer before they step into the national side, reports BSS.

"For me, there's a lot of natural ability and talent here like the other sub-continent sides. Important thing is, how do we harness that natural ability and let it flourish, not just put constraints on it. I want to help these players be the best they can be," Hemp who also took the job of HP batting coach said here today in his first interaction with the media.

Hemp, 52, an international player of Bermuda, had a prolific first class career as a batsman for English County Club Glamorgan, Free State and Warwickshire and featured in 24 internationals for his country.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) put faith on him to groom the players as they want to keep the cricket in safe hands.

"It is a really important role in terms of the development of players in the Bangladesh cricket community. We are trying to help players achieve their goal, which is, in essence, to play for the Bangladesh national side. We provide that platform where players can learn and grow, and step up into that next group - the A team. From that, they can go into the main national side," he said.

"How do we measure it? I think success will be around how many players we transition through this program into the next program above. Important thing is that they stay within those teams and don't drop off. We want to make sure that Bangladesh cricket is stronger and stronger, because there's more depth of players to choose from, because of this program," he added.

The BCB had already named the HP squad which included some talented players who can be the future star of Bangladesh. Hemp said he would talk to national team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha to know what kind of players he is looking for the national team.

"We can decide how we prepare players. We can doctor wickets to help prepare for conditions. We want to align with what Chandika (Hathurusinghe) and the main side wants, in terms of what players they are looking for, what that skillset deficit is. Players have to be good enough to adapt and grow. That's why they are here. We encourage them to be the best they can be. We can produce players in Bangladesh who play in all conditions in all the countries around the world," he revealed.

"There's a lot of crossovers. Some of the players in this current group have played higher. We have seven or eight with the A team. The main difference is the age. We have got the younger group. We are hopeful to fast-track them to the teams that are above us sooner rather than later. Let's get that national side full of young players if we can. Or at least provide the selectors with the opportunity to look at these players if needed," he added.