Hassan urges Tigers to focus on cricket
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan visited the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday, the first day of Bangladesh’s training camp for the upcoming tour of Pakistan.
The discussion among the cricketers in the dressing room centred more on the security measures that would be in place in Pakistan rather than cricketing matters. The Tigers are scheduled to reach Pakistan on January 23 for the first leg of a three-phase tour to take part in a three-match T20I series.
The BCB boss, who exchanged his views with the team management, gave assurance to the players about the security measures.
“We did not want to discuss security with the players. There was a small discussion, however, and I told them there is nothing to worry about and that they should think more about the game. Performance will be affected if the players are thinking about it [security],” Hassan told the media yesterday.
“Cricket is a tough game to play without mental peace and on top of that the format is T20, a tense format. I have told them to keep calm and that InshaAllah everything will be fine. I will be joining them and will stay with them and we will eat together as well. There will be no issues,” he added.
According to Hassan, Bangladesh will have their own security personnel even before the team reaches Pakistan and that they would be able to understand the situation once they complete the first leg of the tour.
“Personnel from the national security agencies will travel exclusively with our cricketers along with our BCB security. We have seen their [PCB’s] security plan and there is nothing more that can be done. The fact is that incidents can happen anywhere now. Situation for us [BCB] would have been different if this was simply a bilateral series. We have the ICC Test Championship matches that we need to play, so we naturally had no option [but to travel to Pakistan],” he added.
Comments