They were inconsolable: Joshi recounts story
Bangladesh spin coach Sunil Joshi recounted his story to the Indian media of the upheaval that the Bangladesh team faced following the Christchurch shooting which left at least 50 people dead and many injured.
He told The Hindu that the players were just inconsolable after the horrific scenes that they suffered.
When the players returned to the hotel, they simply broke down, Joshi recalled. "They were inconsolable. They were crying. They were petrified.
"All of us — staff and players — stayed together from 2:30 in the afternoon till 1 in the night. Because they didn't want to go to their rooms," he said.
"They just hugged everybody and wept. The image of a dead body on the road, injured people soaked in blood kept coming back to them," he told Times of India.
Joshi was first made aware of the incident by team manager Khaled Mashud Pilot. He hardly found the words express what he felt.
"Our manager Khaled Mashud called me around 1:40 pm in the afternoon, to tell me that there was a shooting incident at the mosque.
"He asked me and the [two] players to stay in the hotel and not step out. When we switched on the TV, we realised the magnitude of the incident. We were really shocked. Imagine what the players must have seen with their own eyes," he said.
"Usually, their prayer starts at 1 p.m. That day, our captain Riyad Mahmudullah's press conference got delayed. Imagine if they had left the ground a few minutes early. All of them would have been in the mosque at the time of the shooting. Things would have been different today. Next to Hagley Oval is a park, then there's a street, and across it is the mosque. It was so close. I don't have words to express what happened."
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