Brisbane, June 27: Dav Whatmore won't fool himself into thinking his Bangladesh line-up has a chance of winning against Australia in the upcoming test and limited-overs cricket series. But he's convinced that Bangladesh has one good chance in the series: to learn from the masters.
"Australia is undisputed champion of the world. It will be a hell of an experience for these guys to be matched up against that", Whatmore said. "We would not want to play Australia every series, put it that way, but it would not hurt every now and again to be put up against a side that does every thing well, so you can gauge where you are". Australian fast bowling great Dennis Lillee has said next month's series between the best and the worst test cricket nations was little more than a revenue raiser and an opportunity for Stephen Waugh's Aussies to improve their averages against weak opposition.

Whatmore, a former Australian test batsman who later coached Sri Lanka to its world cup triumph in 1996 and to the semi-finals at the quadrennial showpiece in March, said some of Lillee's criticism was understandable.

"But I've got a couple of points to make -- New Zealand, the West Indies, when they started, it took a long time for them to get into the winning circle", said Whatmore, who took over as Bangladesh coach last month.

"We've only been in here for just under four years.

Bureau Report