Dinner: for the players, by the players

Sri Lanka has been a markedly different place since the horrific suicide bombings which killed over 250 people in April earlier this year, which shook the island nation.

Being the first international team to visit Sri Lanka after the attack, the Bangladesh team has been given top security by the Lankan government and that has made it difficult for the cricketers even to roam around Colombo without informing security.

Apart from travelling to the ground the Tigers mostly have to while away their time at the Taj Samudra Hotel, and it can understandably be monotonous.

The Tigers have therefore opted to make life more homely by spending time together in their hotel rooms, and to make hotel life more enjoyable the team management decided to arrange a dinner at the hotel poolside yesterday.

Mushfiqur Rahim was the head chef of the four-man cooking team, which also boasted Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Forhad Reza. The menu was khichuri, meat along with some pickles that were brought all the way from Bangladesh.

The reason behind arranging the dinner party cooked by the players themselves was to promote team bonding in a rather tensed atmosphere here in Sri Lanka.

“The idea behind the dinner party is to create bonding among players as there is nothing much to do for them other than staying at the hotel when they are not training,” Bangladesh’s acting head coach Khaled Mahmud told The Daily Star yesterday.

On Tuesday, the Bangladesh team went to the Bangladesh High Commission in Sri Lanka, where the players were praised for their friendly gesture of touring Sri Lanka in a crisis situation.

The Tigers are also expected to visit one of the churches hit by the horrific suicide bombings to pay their respects ahead of the training session today.