New-look Tigers start training

BANGLADESH AT HEART: Members of the new-look Bangladesh national team, clad in the colours of national flag, sprint during a training session on the opening day of the preparation camp for their home series against New Zealand at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.Photo: STAR

It was in some ways something different when the Tigers' training camp for the upcoming home series against New Zealand got underway at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
For a change the camp began in a sombre mood with the players clad in red and green national colours and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) making every effort of keeping its players, especially captain Mohammad Ashraful away from the eager press.
Ashraful, who returned from England just in the morning and immediately joined the camp, was barred by the board from having an encounter with the reporters for obvious reasons. The Bangladesh captain was tipped as the man behind the mass resignation last week that saw 13 players risked their domestic and international careers by signing for the banned Indian Cricket League (ICL) which has put the board in a spot of bother on international scene.
The embargo on Ashraful was an effort to recover from the turbulent last week when the board banned the 13 rebel cricketers for 10 years each that included seven contracted players.
Although it was customary for the captain to talk to the reporters on the first day of the training before a series, board officials confirmed that he was not in a position to talk at the moment.
"This is a special situation and he (Ashraful) has just returned from England. We want to talk with him (Ashraful) first and then he will talk with the media," said BCB's media committee chairman Ahmed Sajjadul Alam while confirming that a temporary embargo has been imposed on the captain.
BCB's media manager Rabeed Imam meanwhile warned that it would be a breach of code of conduct if Ashraful made any comments to the press without the board's green signal.
While the board made no secret about its tough stance in the aftermath of the ICL fallout, it also tried to demonstrate the patriotic zeal evident amongst the players on the first day of the training where the cricketers wore bandanas and sported T-shirts of national colours.
"You can say the measures have been taken to get over the recent shock episode. We are trying to inspire them with the red and green colours," said team operations manager Shafiqul Haq while referring to the cricketers' new-look attires.
Out of the selected 24 probables, seven cricketers were absent on the opening day and middle-order batsman Rajin Saleh and Enamul Haque, the men from Sylhet, are expected to join the camp today while five young cricketers -- Imrul Kayes, Nayeem Islam, Shamsur Rahman, Sohrawordi Shuvo and Mahbubul Alam -- are now touring with the academy team in Sri Lanka.
New Zealand will arrive in the city on September 30 to play two Tests and three one-day internationals in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The tour will start with the first ODI in Dhaka on October 9 after the Eid vacation.