It is a pity to watch the game: Mushy -The Asian Age

 
Due to worldwide corona outbreak, a number of international home and away tours and competitions as well as domestic events of Bangladesh have seen postponements and players was forced to stay home.

Cricketing activities in the countries remain stopped since mid March following the outbreak of COVID-19, a deadly virus that left the country stranded almost. Some of the players and officials including former skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam Apu were contracted the virus before recovering fully. BCB previously postponed the Bangabandhu DPDCL 2019-20 after the first round following the nationwide Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic back in March 16.

The players like Mushfiqur Rahim and others requested BCB to give them an opportunity of outdoor training. The BCB agreed and arranged individual training for the players in accordance with the standard health protocol, opening up a possibility to begin cricketing activities in full scale. Nine Bangladesh national cricketers however returned to action for the first time post-lockdown on last week as they started one-to-one training sessions following the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)'s latest guidelines.

While England and West Indies are playing a Test series, Mushfiqur spent his time sitting at home watching the game. Mushfiq said on Sunday watching cricket at home is really disappointed for him but he seeks the material to learn from here as well.

"It is a pity to watch the game, sitting at home all day, spending time with family and watching the game. It feels a little bad because of missing 50 or 100. But trying to figure out how to prepare yourself mentally by watching the game on TV. And if all goes well, we have to prepare mentally for the games ahead. Besides, the new rules say that many things cannot be used; batsmen also have a difficult time." Mushfiq said after training on Sunday. "I am trying to learn from here after seeing everything.  When our international cricket resumes, we want it to go back to normal." He added.

The first phase of week-long individual training of the cricketers in accordance with the standard health protocol in the light of COVID-19 pandemic ended successfully at different venues across the country on Sunday.

A total of 12 cricketers so far took the opportunity to train individually in four different venues, arranged by BCB and a number of cricketers also showed their interest to begin training after the break of Eid-ul-Adha.