It’s been a long, tough road but Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore believes his side are finally reaping the benefits of their seven-year-old Test status.

Much like many of the Associate nations at this World Cup, Bangladesh’s admission into the top echelons of international cricket was greeted with howls of derision from some commentators, who believed Test cricket was being cheapened by allowing in a side who were likely to be well out of their depth.

And while there have been plenty of big defeats in seven years at the top to bolster the arguments of the sceptics, with Bangladesh now in with a shout of reaching the Super Eights, Whatmore is convinced the International Cricket Council’s faith in them is beginning to pay off.

“It’s been a huge challenge coaching Bangladesh and it’s taken a lot of hard work, but we’re now starting to become a lot more competitive and are in with a chance of making it through to the next phase,” said the burly Australian and former Sri Lanka coach.

“It’s not often we go into a World Cup game as the favourites to win, but that’s certainly will be the case against Bermuda and we’ll be looking for a convincing win on the day.

“How exactly we approach the game depends a lot on the result of the game going on today (yesterday, between India and Sri Lanka) but at this stage all I can say is that we’re going to have to look to go out there and dominate.

“We’ve had some very good results over the last 12 months or so. We’ve beaten Zimbabwe in a one-day series, we’ve beaten New Zealand, we’ve beaten India. We weren’t too pretty against Sri Lanka the other day (when the Tigers lost by 198 runs) but those sorts of things can happen when you’ve got a young and inexperienced side like we have. But we got to the Caribbean before any other team and have prepared really well so far — and I think the results in general are showing that. We’ve got a bunch of young players to work with, most of who are under the age of 25, so we’re really excited about what the future holds.”

Whatmore expressed his sympathy when asked for his opinion on Bermuda’s two crushing defeats at the hands of Sri Lanka and India. He, perhaps more than any other top international coach, is well aware of how difficult it is preparing a more limited team to take on the very best.

But while he said he hoped to see Bermuda back at future World Cups, his priority now was to make sure the Island team returned home having lost three consecutive game in convincing fashion.

“Bermuda are a team we’ve seen a little of having played them in Antigua and if we stick to our game plans and play to our potential then we should be OK.

“They’ve had a very tough tournament so far, which I guess was to be expected given that it’s their first World Cup. They look like they’ve got one or two talented players, but overall it’s no particular surprise to me that they’ve struggled against the likes of India and Sri Lanka.

“We wish them all the best in their development as a cricket nation, but for now we have to go out there and look to impose ourselves. If we get through to the Super Eights then anything can happen really and it would fantastic for Bangladesh cricket if we could have a good run.”

The Bangladeshi squad went through an extended training session under a very hot sun at the St. Mary’s College Grounds adjacent to the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday morning — doing well to keep their concentration despite a large group of scantily clad carnival dancers getting dressed for a street festival on the balcony of the ground’s pavilion.

They will get one more run-out today in the nets at the Queen’s Park Oval before the final first phase game starts tomorrow.