Post-Match Press Conference: Mitchell Marsh and Najmul Hossain Shanto Reflect on Australia vs Bangladesh Clash in ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023

Post- Match Press Conference Summary: Insights from Mitchell Marsh (Australia) and Bangladesh Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto after the Australia vs Bangladesh clash in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.

Australia player Mitchell Marsh 

Bangladesh Captain Najmul Hossain 

Australia player Mitchell Marsh post-match press conference transcript

[Reporter:] Just comparing your century earlier in the tournament, where you looked really fired up when you got there, and compared to today, a bit more low-key. Just fair to say that the emotions were slightly different.

 

[Mitchell Marsh:] It’s always a great honour to score 100, but I was pretty cooked to be honest. I was just starting to cramp at that stage, so I was trying to keep my heart rate low and not exert too much energy. So, yeah, this one meant just as much as any other 100 that I've ever made.

 

[Reporter:] As individually and as a group, what you guys set out to achieve today on the field, how it transpired actually? What you wanted to do today, considering you're already in the semi-finals, and what transpired on the field vis-a-vis that, whatever you wanted to achieve?

 

[Mitchell Marsh:] Yeah, look, we wanted to win the match. Although we qualified for the semis before the game, it's a World Cup game, it's another game for our country and I guess it's all about keeping the standards high and coming away with a win. So, yeah, very happy.

 

[Reporter:] We saw your second century of this World Cup. How do you feel about that and this, how the way you batted and you get full confidence before the semifinal? How do you feel about that?

 

[Mitchell Marsh:] Yeah, it’s great to be able to score 100 in a winning team. I started at negative 50 after my bowling, so I had to get a few back. But, yeah, it's, as I said before, any time you score 100 for Australia, it's always a great feeling. We're obviously really excited about what lies ahead for us.

 

[Reporter:] With these results, I think most probably Australia will meet South Africa in the semifinals. How do you feel about that? Before the most confident team, before the semifinals, I think Australia consider your team performance.

 

[Mitchell Marsh:] Yeah, we're really excited. Semifinals, I think you look back to the start of the World Cup and a 9- one day game seems like a long way away. With the amount of improvement with all cricket teams around the world there's been not one easy game so to get to the semi-finals is great - but yeah, we're very excited about what lies ahead and the challenge that's ahead of us.

 

[Reporter:] New Zealand almost chased down 389 against you. Afghanistan almost scored 300. Bangladesh scored 300 today. Do you think Australia as a bowling group has been a bit off colour, or do you consider it as normal considering the pitches in this World Cup?

 

[Mitchell Marsh:] There's probably a number of things that that comes down to. There's been some really fat wickets and some small grounds. I didn't realise how small this one was, even though I played here a little bit. There's a lot of good teams out there, a lot of teams have chased down big totals so I think it's about having a mentality to keep taking wickets but understanding that when guys get on top that that's going to happen at this level and whatever's put in front of us, we try and chase it down.

 

[Reporter:] Considering that it was a day game under hot sun and non-India game, also rather inconsequential game, how do you look at the crowd support and the atmosphere?

 

[Mitchell Marsh:] Yeah, I think our crowd especially have been great the whole tournament. I'm not sure they actually come to watch us, it's either David Warner or Glenn Maxwell, so yeah you sort of feel a little bit left out, but we've been lucky we've had great crowds. When we're not playing against India, I feel like Australia always has really good support over here, and the fans are just amazing, so we feel very lucky.

In Pune in particular -  Yeah, I thought that they're coming. I think this is Steve Smith's favourite ground in India. He says that regularly he loves batting here.

So yeah, we love coming here to play.

Bangladesh Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto post-match press conference transcript

[Reporter:] Indian coach Dravid had talked about and praised your team, especially the performance. So, what do you feel on taking India tomorrow? What are you planning to gain from this match?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Obviously, we praise straight back at him and his team. I think they've played some  dominating cricket as well. Top of the table for a reason. You can see it. They've got a high quality of players. They look very well organised and obviously favourites for the tournament going forward. So, obviously, praise back to him rather than praise to us really.

But no, we obviously looking forward to the game tomorrow. It'll be a great occasion on Diwali at the Chinnaswamy. Obviously, lots of excitement around that for our team. And yeah, really looking forward to testing our skills up against the table toppers.

 

[Reporter:] had spoken about wanting to make it to the semi-finals as the aim of the team. That unfortunately wouldn't be happening. The other aspect you had mentioned was about making an impact so that the other teams can see how good Netherlands Cricket is.

How do you assess the team's performance so far and do you think you all have been able to make that mark that you wanted to?

And secondly, since you all don't get to train a lot often together, have you all been able to make use of the training facilities available here and the team together? Apart from the customary pre-match training.

 

[Ryan Cook:] I think to answer the second question first, we pride ourselves on our training. Often our optional training sessions become 14 or 15 men strong. So, we've obviously used the facilities as well as we can. We've trained really hard for pretty much everyone in the squad. It's their first time to India and to obviously get used to these conditions and play in these conditions is a real privilege for us and something that we don't take for granted and we're very grateful for.

The guys have improved a lot in terms of all their different habits that they have in their training and refining our processes and the tournament has been very good for us in that regard.

To go back to the first question around other teams looking forward to try and play us. I have actually had a few teams' coaches approach me and ask about our schedule and how potentially they could fit into their schedule, so that bodes well. But I know the international schedules are quite full.

But again, we would obviously love to play as many teams as possible. We've shown that we can compete for long periods of the game, and obviously by playing games against these teams, we're going to be able to compete better for longer.

It goes without saying that the guys have put in some really good performances both individually and as a team, both batting and bowling and fielding. So, I think everyone has gone in a respect for the way that we've played our cricket and the style in which we've gone about it. And that's been really pleasing to see from a coaching perspective.

 

[Reporter:] Just to add to that, if you could talk about some of the specific lessons that Netherlands have learned from playing at this level.

Also, the ODI Super League which has been scrapped, how big a blow is that? Because over the last couple of years, you've actually had a few bilateral series against some of the top teams at least. So not having that, does it make the road more uncertain like the road ahead in terms of -

 

[Ryan Cook:] Yeah, I think the Super League was really influential for the players and they often refer back to those as reference points that they've had playing in different countries, playing against some of the top teams in the world. And I think it's probably one of the reasons why we sit in the position that we're in today to be competing at the World Cup.

The guys get about playing better opposition and obviously the more of those opposition we can play will be handy for us. I think we had a situation where after the qualifiers we had no cricket against any - we just had Karnataka that we played against. And probably in hindsight probably missed a couple of fixtures to refine our skills and get ourselves going in terms of quality fixtures that we had. And those two games were really good, but probably not quite enough for preparation for a World Cup like this. And that was no fault of our own. We tried our best to try and get as many fixtures as we could. But obviously, as we said, the schedules are quite packed.

So, yeah, the Super League is obviously a blow for us, but again, nothing stopping a bilateral series happening between two countries in ODI cricket or in T20 cricket as we move towards the T20 World Cup as well. They will be up against the good teams again and obviously we'll be trying to prepare as well as we can for that tournament.

So that's been really important.

Regarding the lessons that we've had along the way, I think the main lesson that we've learned is that our team needs to be better for longer, whether that's with the bat or with the ball. I think we've shown glimpses of great periods of play. Some of those periods have been 20, 30, 40 overs long, but an ODI is 100 overs long and you have to play cricket for a long period of time and you have to play it really well.

So, I think the batters are learning that, that they need to be really good at their craft for long periods of time against skilful bowlers. And obviously from a bowling perspective, the same thing.

In the field, I think the guys have stuck with it really well. I think we've shown ourselves as to be one of the best fielding teams in this competition. And they put a lot of pride into that. And we put a lot of time and effort into that because it is one area that we can compete in. And you'll see it every training session that we have. We always do fielding and the guys are always improving that aspect of the game.

 

[Reporter:] You are coming to India well in earlier for this World Cup and a lot of preparation gone in, especially after playing a wonderful qualifiers, beating a team like West Indies and coming here. Your team has shown a lot of effort and a lot of hard work and also played very well in one couple of games.

So, the overall assessment of the entire squad, how all the boys have put in an equal amount of effort and how do you see the Netherlands cricket moving ahead in the years to come?

 

[Ryan Cook:] I've been very proud personally of the effort that all the guys have put in. We hit this last game, last on the leg, but you would never know that by being in and around the team - you'd never sort of see a dull moment, the connection between the group, the cohesion, the unity that we stand for is probably even stronger than it's ever been.

So, I think that goes to show the kind of culture that we have and how we are learning and how it isn't so much about the results as it is about the progression at this stage of our development as a team.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, would we have wanted to sort of be in those semi-final spaces come tomorrow? Yes, I'm sure we would have. But I think the guys take valuable lessons away and the relationships that we've been able to develop have been really strong. I think we've also learned a lot of lessons around how we should prepare for these types of conditions. We came out to Bangalore [Bengaluru] twice, which was a great experience for us. And that was sort of mind and eye-opening experience for everyone. And yeah, if we'd had a few more games in the subcontinent, I think probably we would have come in a little bit better prepared. But nonetheless, we had what we had and the guys, as you say, have been putting in the full effort that they can every game that they play, every training session that they come to. So very proud as a coach in that regard.

 

[Reporter:] Dutch athletes frequently win a lot of medals at the Olympics. With cricket now being part of the Olympic movement, will it change how money and funding works in cricket in the Netherlands?

And if yes, has there already been any conversations with regard to cricket in the Netherlands with the Olympics, with cricket coming to the Olympics?

 

[Ryan Cook:] I have absolutely no idea to any of that. I think we've been so focused on what we've been doing here, going game to game. There's been quick turnaround, lots of travel, practice. We said at the start of the tournament, we'll be on the edges of our capability pretty much throughout the whole tournament and we have been. The preparation we put in and the amount of detail that we've gone into for each game and trying to prepare for each opposition has been something that's been quite overwhelming at times actually for all the support staff, the captain included, and obviously the players who are preparing for those games. So, I don't think we've actually thought that far ahead. I'm sure those conversations will happen once we get back home in the next couple of days.

 

[Reporter:] How do you think this campaign will impact the popularity or the growth of cricket back home, where obviously cricket is not your number one sport. So, what do you think this will do for the profile of the sport in the country?

 

[Ryan Cook:] We hope that it does a lot. I think it's the first time that it's been streamed on TV for quite some time. It's reaching a greater audience now and a lot more people are talking about it within the Netherlands. And lots of people are sending pictures and messages about having watch parties, which maybe only contain 50 or 60 people in comparison to the IPL fan box that I see here in April and May which are which are packed but that's as big as it gets - there it's a big thing so yeah I think it hopefully will grow the popularity of the game provide aspiration for young players who want to come through the game and into the system, create a system that will be able to hold those players and get them to perform at international level. And that can only be good for us.

Hopefully it also attracts fixtures like we've spoken about, more sponsorship and greater revenue into the game that we'll be able to sort of put more resources in behind these group of players, but obviously players to come in the future as well.

 

[Reporter:] One of the reasons why the Netherlands have done really well in recent years is that some of your players get to experience the English county, they have been playing English county [cricket]. Now you have mentioned IPL, the IPL auction is scheduled in a few months’ time. Would you like to see some of your players featuring in the tournament so that the league get more eyeballs back in Netherlands?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Yeah, once again, I mean the guys are very open to obviously playing games in different countries. Our fixture list is such that most of the leagues that are played, our players would have full availability for those leagues. I know being involved in a lot of the leagues in IPL and in the SA20 that sometimes you know the auction depends on who's available and who's not available. I think mostly in our cases. We're always available.

If anyone is looking for players who are available the whole time and are good quality players like they've shown here, they would be a very good mix for those guys to get. And I think a lot of the players have stood up here. Some of the top wicket takers in the tournament, some guys have really shot nicely with the bat in specific parts of the game, which I think would be very attractive to lots of different leagues.

IPL would be a great experience for our players and that would be sort of the next level. But, you know, even just any of the other leagues as well would be well welcomed from the players' point of view and obviously the experience that they can gain in that space.

 

[Reporter:] India has already sealed their spot at the top of the entire table. Tomorrow, regardless of the win or whatever the result is, they're going to finish top.

So, there is an opportune moment. Do you think this is the time to play them?

 

[Ryan Cook:] No, I don't think there's any opportune moment to play them. Obviously, they're playing really good cricket at the moment. They've won all the matches and pretty convincingly in that way as well. I don't see them taking their foot off the pedal in any way to going into the semifinals and into the finals. I'm sure they'll be putting their best foot forward and preparing for us as much as they do for any other team. And we would obviously be showing them the same courtesy as well. So, we have great respect for India and the players within there. And I'm sure that they will show the same respect to us and play a great game of cricket as we will be trying to do tomorrow.

 

[Reporter:] Bangalore has been a home away from home for you all. You started your pre-World Cup training here. What are your thoughts on playing your last league fixture - ending it here?

 

[Ryan Cook:] I wish that everyone could have seen [Shariz] Ahmad's face yesterday when we had our optional training, again which about nine or ten guys arrived to.

It was a dream come true for him. It was like, you know, watching someone arrive at Lords or, you know, this is his dream. He's an RCB supporter. He's always obviously been following the cricket and he just had such a smile on his face.

And all he wanted to do was hit a six at the Chinnaswamy, which obviously he did out in the nets yesterday. So, he was obviously super happy about that.

Yeah, we've loved Bangalore. As you mentioned, we came here for a pre-camp to work on our spin play, especially then we came up on a pre-camp as well. And it's very welcoming. We really like Bangalore as a city.

And yeah, to play at the Chinnaswamy in front of a full crowd tomorrow in our last game will be a real good challenge for us to test our skills and where we've been, how much we've improved over the time and how much learning we may still have to do. So yeah, we're really looking forward to it. It's really exciting for us.

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