As several national cricketers were engaged in the just-concluded Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) final, the first training session for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy began with an unusual sight -- more coaches than players -- at the National Cricket Academy in Mirpur yesterday.

Fast bowlers Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, and batters Jaker Ali Anik, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, and Soumya Sarkar received respective guidance from head coach Phil Simmons, senior assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin, spin coach Mushtaq Ahmed, and pace bowling coach Andre Adams. Bangladesh Cricket Board's other coaches, Sohel Islam and Talha Jubair, were on hand as well for the two-hour session.

Skipped training for obvious reasons were players like Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Towhid Hridoy, Rishad Hossain, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Parvez Hossain Emon were part of the BPL final, which ended late Friday night.

However, the likes of Taskin Ahmed, Nasum Ahmed, Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Nahid Rana -- whose BPL teams did not make the BPL final -- were also absent.

The camp will continue until February 12 before they leave for the UAE on February 14 to participate in the marquee event, scheduled to start on February 19.

It was initially thought that the aforementioned absentees, whose developmental years were shaped at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), might go there yesterday to attend a reunion programme. However, it was learnt that none of the national players attended the programme.

Meanwhile, BPL champions Fortune Barishal are set to visit the division with their two BPL trophies won on the trot, meaning those national players who represented the team will be unlikely to show up in today's training as well.

Bangladesh, who are in Group A of the eight-team Champions Trophy, will begin their campaign against India in Dubai on February 20, before facing New Zealand and Pakistan in their remaining matches on February 24 and 27, respectively, in Rawalpindi.