DHAKA: Bangladesh’s historic Test victory in Sri Lanka should encourage more teams to find space in their schedules to play the fast-improving minnows, according to the head of the country’s cricket board.

In their 100th Test, Bangladesh beat Rangana Herath’s men by four wickets in Colombo on Sunday — their first victory away from home against top-class opponents.

Bangladesh’s lack of success in Test cricket has been one of the reasons major cricketing nations have been reluctant to schedule matches against Bangladesh, with last month’s one-off Test in Hyderabad their first ever match in India.

Their only tour of Australia was also way back in 2003, but Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan told reporters that the victory in Colombo could mark a sea-change in attitudes and that more matches with Test teams were already being pencilled in.

“There is no doubt that every team will show their keen interest to play with us, way more than it has been in the past,” Nazmul said late Monday.

“They will field their full strength team against us. All the teams will see Bangladesh in a different way.

“We have done our groundwork for the next one year, what and how we need to do things. Actually, we will play 10 Tests within this period. We’ve never got to play so many Tests in the past in one calendar year because the big teams did not take Bangladesh seriously,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2017