But Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore was not at all excited to see the gloomy sky and the drizzle.

"It's not going to help anybody," said the 50-year-old knowing that how desperately his boys needed some outdoor practice after the three-day thrashing in the first Test at Lord's last Saturday.

The Bangladesh team did not have any practice for the last three days and the only thing they did after disembarking from a bus from London on Wednesday was a bit of gym at the hotel in the afternoon.

Worse for them is a bleak prospect of net session at the Riverside ground, where they are going to face the might of England pace attack that destroyed them at Lord's. Later the Bangladesh team trained indoors due to incessant drizzle and they did not even get the chance to see the wicket.

"The rain means the wicket will be covered and the surface under it will have a bit of juice which is not at all inspiring," said Whatmore who carries bitter memories of this place with the Sri Lankan team a few years ago.

"We were knocked around quite heavily here and the weather was very bad at that time."

Bangladesh are also going to face the inclement weather with forecast of rain till the weekend and over. The prediction is that the sun will come out not before Wednesday.

"It's gloomy now and we need some wind blowing from somewhere to take this cloud away," hoped Whatmore as he led his team to the morning training session.

The cricketers were also feeling the bite of heavy cold as they put on extra pullovers before going for the training.

Bangladesh will be the second team to play a Test match here after Zimbabwe, who also played their second Test at Chester-le-Street in June 2003.

The Africans lost the match by an innings and more importantly they collapsed for 74 in the first innings after England put up 400 odd runs after winning the toss.

Bangladesh, however, played their match against Australia in the 1999 World Cup at this very ground, where Minhazul Abedin scored his second half-century and opener Mehrab Hossain made a superb 42. But Bangladesh's combined effort was too small for the Australians who wiped those 178 runs in just 19.5 overs with Adam Gilchirst (63) blazing all guns.

Mohammad Rafique and wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud are the only surviving members of that side who are travelling with the present lot.

But both admitted that it was going to be a tall task for them in this condition and in a five-day match.

"We will have to learn quickly how to occupy the crease. This is no place to fancy shots and we will have to dig deep if we stand any chance of a fight back," said Mashud, the only Bangladeshi batsman who offered some resistance at Lord's.