The Bhatiari Golf and Country Club in the northern reaches of this city is a small paradise for anyone willing to escape the daily grind.
With hills and lakes and a fine view of the Bay of Bengal from the hilltops around the course, it became the perfect getaway for the Tigers, a group that badly needs to get away from the storm clouds of controversy that seem to be piling up over its head. With the team management deciding to take a break from training, Shakib Al Hasan's men ventured out on their team bus to the country club rather than staying in their hotel rooms, the players taking part in a game of golf as well as fly-fishing and a bit of larking around.
But the refreshing change seemed hardly good enough for all the pressure to be taken off the Tigers' back that began with the soul-crushing loss to West Indies last Friday and is now spinning out of control off the field.
With two days to go to the big challenge of taking up England in their fourth Group B match of the World Cup, Bangladesh desperately need to be focusing on their game as they are in a dire state for making the desired quarterfinal berth. The nine-wicket defeat left them in a situation where they have to win all three of their remaining games against England, the Netherlands and South Africa. But the atmosphere doesn't seem healthy for the home team with the difficult task at their hands.
The deterioration has occurred through skipper Shakib's position at the centre of controversy after his hard-hitting reaction over the criticism of the former national players.
After such a meek surrender, it's obvious that people from different quarters would come up with different opinions and it's wise for any team to keep tight-lipped and concentrate more on planning for the next game to overcome the adversity. But unfortunately the Bangladesh team, particularly its captain, added more fuel to the criticism by making some harsh comments and inviting more off-field debates.
Apparently controversy hogged the spotlight yesterday too following the disclosure of a photograph of the Bangladesh captain. The players have been restrained from making any comments yesterday following the Bangladesh Cricket Board's very late initiative of asking the cricketers and team management not to speak with the media and writing any columns without prior permission of the board. But the damage has already been done before the board action, although a glimmer of hope took shape as the players took the proposal positively.
The players, including the coach, refused to speak to the media yesterday.
Two former Bangladesh skippers, Faruque Ahmed and Habibul Bashar, also suggested that it would be better for the team if they only concentrated on their next game.
"It's totally unacceptable what Shakib said against the former cricketers in his reaction over the criticism. But I think it's wise not to speak more on this issue right at the moment for the greater interest. There was no need to invite this kind of problem for the team," said Faruque, a former chief selector.
"How can you expect that people will not say anything when a team is shot out for 58 runs? One must accept the criticism. You can give a perfect reply by your performance. I think the team should focus more on their game," he added.
Bashar termed it an unhealthy situation for the team, admitting that he was hurt by the comments and the skipper of the 2007 World Cup strongly advised the players to focus on cricket.
"His [Shakib's] comments really hurt me. What I believe is that as an international player one must have the sense of discretion. It's not good what happened after the West Indies defeat and it was also not healthy for any team. Team discipline means a lot of things," said Bashar.
"They should focus more on their game now because we are really struggling in the tournament, especially we have to work lot with our batting," he said.
Having opened battlefields on two fronts, the question now is whether the Tigers can bounce back. It would be much appreciated if they focus on winning the battle against England and forget the media war.
