Dhaka: After 40 hotel-bound hours — save for a game of golf on an adjoining course — since arriving in Bangladesh, England’s cricketers experienced their first full armed convoy when travelling to the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka for their first training session before the One Day International series begins on Friday.
The five England and Wales Cricket Board vehicles were lined by armed motorbikes and 4x4s. The task force included government troops, special forces, intelligence agencies and scores of police at ground level, with rooftop gunmen in attendance.
Roads were closed for the majority of the 15-minute journey [normally it would take four times as long], but on the approach to the ground many fans — cordoned off by police — lined the streets for a glimpse of the team bus.
As many as 500 people were involved in the security effort, which was funded by the Bangladeshi government; they worked in conjunction with the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the ECB’s security adviser, Reg Dickason, whose visit last month declared Bangladesh safe to tour.
Such a convoy will join the team, who have the director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, and the chief executive, Tom Harrison, for company, each time they travel to and from the ground.
Upon arrival the players seemed at ease as they were whisked into the stadium. Jos Buttler, the captain in the absence of Eoin Morgan, faced close to 100 local journalists, who echoed the public’s sentiment of goodwill that the tour is taking place.
“Touring the subcontinent, security is paramount,” said Buttler. “We are looked after very well. That is part and parcel of making the tour OK. Now we are here we will focus on cricket. Those things will go back into the background.”
After Buttler spoke, England trained. First at the nets behind the ground — overlooked by Dhaka high-rises [with armed gunmen on top] — before doing fielding practice under lights on the ground (preceded, of course, by the obligatory game of football).
All three ODIs — the first two are here, with the third in Chittagong — are day-night matches. Earlier the assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, said he was “massively disappointed” with the withdrawal of Alex Hales and the regular white-ball captain Morgan, who pulled out because of security concerns, although he believes their absence presents an opportunity to some fringe players.
That said, Farbrace was unequivocal in his belief that Morgan should captain the ODI side on their next tour, to India in January. The identity of those who will replace Hales and Morgan, and Joe Root, who has been rested for this leg of the tour, should become clearer when England face a BCB XI at Fatullah. James Vince, Ben Duckett, Jonny Bairstow and Sam Billings are competing to replace the trio, although Farbrace did not rule out Moeen Ali returning to the top of the order.
Farbrace said Buttler would keep wicket. “I was massively disappointed that the two of them chose not to go,” Farbrace said. “But you get over that disappointment and you realise that there are opportunities for others to get a go. If we are going to be challengers in 2019 our pool of players needs to keep expanding. I feel we have 20-21 guys who could play for England and we wouldn’t have necessarily a weaker side.
“The ideal is that the guys coming in do brilliantly, so Alex and Morgs know that getting their place back will be very tough. That’s the only risk that the pair run, that the guys come in, do brilliantly, then in India obviously selection will be very tough.”
Farbrace, who like the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, who arrives from Sydney on Sunday night after visa trouble, was aboard the Sri Lankan team bus that was shot at in Pakistan in 2009, seemed unperturbed by the security arrangements.
“Around the hotel it’s not too in your face, like Pakistan where there are guards sat outside your door with guns. First thing you see in the morning is a pair of boots and the butt of a gun. It’s not like that here and I don’t think we could be in a better place really.”
Like Buttler, the management hope that after the first training session the focus will shift from security to cricket, and Farbrace was quick to warn that England will face a stern foe here. On Saturday Bangladesh completed their sixth straight ODI series win at home, a run that includes victories over South Africa, India and Pakistan, while they knocked England out of the 2015 World Cup in Adelaide.
“This is a tough place to come, which it didn’t used to be apart from the conditions,” he said. “I think a few of our lads will be quite surprised by the standard they are up against — not just the tough conditions, but the quality of the opposition. They might not admit it, but I think they will be surprised.”
