Mahmud unhappy with facilities

Bangladesh national team manager Khaled Mahmud expressed his dissatisfaction over the pitch at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground outer nets where Bangladesh were scheduled to practise yesterday.

It was raining throughout the day in Colombo yesterday and Bangladesh were forced to cancel their training session after the warm-ups. All of the squad – except Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed, Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Liton Das – had turned up for practice despite it being an optional practice  day.

"We were scheduled to practise here at the SSC and the Bangladesh team have trained here before. But the wicket was not as good as we expected for practice and not the type of pitch we will play on in the game [the Nidahas Trophy match against India on Wednesday]. The players can get injured any time so we did not want to take the risk," Mahmud told reporters while heading towards the hotel after cancelling the training session at the SSC in Colombo yesterday.

Bangladesh will take on India at the R Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday and Mahmud expressed his disappointment for not being able to practise ahead of their crucial game.

"Obviously I am a bit disappointed for not being able to practise today [yesterday]. We even wanted to practise at the Premadasa nets but that also didn't happen as it's been raining from morning and the groundstaff have covered the pitch. So with not much option we had to turn back. I have told them [SLC] about the issue and they informed that as it's raining the groundsmen were unable to prepare the pitch. And just before the practice it rained again, but the wicket was not good when we arrived," he added.

Previously, despite all the Nidahas trophy matches taking place at night Bangladesh did not practise under lights before their first game against India which the Tigers went on to lose by five wickets .