Tigers chilling at the Village

Although just 120 kilometres away from South Africa's biggest city, Potchefstroom is a world away from the hustle, bustle and the sometimes intimidating muscle of Johannesburg. There are no taxis in Potchefstroom on Sundays, so the journey to the Bangladesh team's hotel was on foot, on the side of wide, six-lane city streets whose sparse traffic will take some getting used to for Bangladeshi eyes. Perhaps for Bangladeshi national cricketers too, the team hotel will take some getting used to.

So often used to being put up in five-star hotels, Mushfiqur Rahim's team arrived at the comparatively humbler Nwu Puk Sports Village at around 1:00pm yesterday after a two-hour drive from Johannesburg. To say it is walking distance from Senwes Park, the venue for the first Test against South Africa starting on September 28, would be an understatement. The layman, not aware of the high demands on international sportsmen, could well imagine setting the alarm to half an hour before the toss, grabbing a quick breakfast and strolling over to the international cricket ground well before the first ball.

To call it humble may be a disservice, because it has the bells and whistles of modern hotels, but is set out in a more modest fashion, and its sport-friendly ambience -- the several two-storey accommodations look out on a swimming pool, and beyond the single-storey main building are tennis and basketball courts -- make it an ideal abode for the sporting elite.

The players themselves were in relaxed mood. Their first practice match, which ended in a draw on Saturday in Benoni, produced no cause for alarm apart from the injury concerns surrounding openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar. Five of them had come down to the main building for lunch and were talking animatedly, while coach Chandika Hathurusingha was having his lunch in a quieter fashion at a table nearby along with four other members of the coaching staff. Among the five cricketers were Mushfiqur, Tamim and Soumya. Tamim seemed to be walking around without the thigh injury bothering him too much and Soumya also seemed unperturbed by the shoulder niggle.

The rest had opted to take their lunch at a nearby shopping mall, probably the only one open in Potchefstroom, and returned presently bearing sated expressions. Yesterday, a rest day for players on a challenging safari, was the calm before the storm. But they can still relax knowing that they are in the ideal place to prepare for the Protea challenge.