Calm in Tigers camp

Bangladesh cricketers take to the field after a successful meeting with BCB vice-president Amhed Sajjadul Alam (wearing panjabi) at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. Photo: STAR

After a day's break, the West Indies-bound national cricketers resumed practice at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
The spotlight however was not on practice rather it centred around Mohammad Ashraful and his men's meeting with the vice-president of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Ahmed Sajjadul Alam before the start of the training.
But as expected it was an 'amicable view-exchanging' meeting between the players and the board high-up although there was a lot of fuss in the Tigers tent during Thursday's training following BCB director and former national skipper Gazi Ashraf Hossain's thumping comments about the ICC World Twenty20 performance in England.
According to sources, initially the players even thought of boycotting training until Ashraf apologised for his comments. But it took little time to change their stance on the same day and nothing important cropped up while they discussed the issue in the meeting.
Sajjadul Alam was not ready to speak in front of the media about the meeting's outcome rather he left the job to media manager Rabeed Imam who only informed that there was a misunderstanding which was solved through an amicable discussion and that the players are now focused on their next assignment which is the tour of the West Indies. But Imam was not entirely clear about what the "misunderstanding" was.
It was learnt that the players who were vocal in the dressing room to ignite the atmosphere had little to say during the discussion although they fumed after leaving the room, especially angry about why some players had apparently said 'sorry'.
It was also learnt that some players had apologised for their bad reaction and that captain Ashraful had also apologised to Ashraf over phone for his comments.
Meanwhile, it is all but confirmed that Ashraful is going to lose the captaincy as BCB's spokesman Jalal Yunus already informed that the majority of directors were in favour of the removal of the 24-year-old batsman before the Caribbean tour. In addition he may also be fined for breaching the players' code of conduct.
Ashraful openly criticised Ashraf which many thought was a clear violation of the code of conduct.
Although everything appears to be normal now, everybody is looking forward see to what action the BCB, particularly the cricket operations committee, takes against the incident as soon as many of the high-ups return from abroad.
Many think that it's alarming the way some players reacted and showed their arrogance towards the comments of the higher authorities. "One can't compromise with disciplinary issues, no matter how big a player or official is. There is a lot of evidence that even stern action has been taken against big names on disciplinary ground. So, BCB will react accordingly," said an official on condition of anonymity.
Questions were also raised about the role of some officials in the team and everybody is suggesting that the BCB high-ups give a long-look on the issue to make sure of maintaining discipline within the team.
After the recent episodes, coach Jamie Siddons has tweaked his schedule and is likely to return to Dhaka on June 27 instead of joining the team in the West Indies from Australia.