DEHRADUN DIARY

BEWARE OF LEOPARDS

Apart from the huge distance one must travel between the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium and the main city, coupled with a lack of public transportation around the stadium, which is a major concern for journalists who travelled here to cover Bangladesh's three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in Dehradun, the probable threat of a leopard attack in the area is another cause for worry.

The stadium is located almost 10 kilometres away from the main city and is surrounded by jungles, where there have been incidents of people getting killed by leopards. While returning to the hotel, after Bangladesh's practice game against an Afghan XI which ended at midnight courtesy of a rain delay, the auto-rickshaw driver began to tell stories of leopard attacks in the Raipur area, stories which practically scared this reporter to death. On March 23 this year, a five-year old boy was carried off by a leopard and his half-eaten body was discovers about 500 metres from his house while on April 7, a woman was attacked in the same area.

SIMMONS THE MEDIA MANAGER

Bangladesh coach Courtney Walsh, skipper Shakib Al Hasan, Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai and coach Phil Simmons underwent probably the most disorganised pre-match press conference ever at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

The room was packed with both local and international reporters and though the Afghanistan media manager tried to conduct the conference in an orderly fashion, the journalists seemed unable to wait for their turns to ask questions.

At one point, Simmons finally had enough and said: "hold on everyone, let's try get things organised. You have to put your hands up and ask questions one by one. You just can't shout." When Shakib was asked about his thoughts on the press conference, he said: "It's okay, obviously it's a new experience but it's ok with me,

ONLY CHICKEN 

The experience of visiting Dehradun has been a different one for the Bangladeshi players in terms of international tours. The Regenta LP Vilas, the team hotel where the Tigers are staying, is situated in a restricted military zone far away from the city.

With basically no chance of roaming the city to even taste the local cuisine, the cricketers retreated to the hotel restaurant. "There are not many options choose from so chicken is the only thing I have been eating for the past few days," said Sabbir Rahman.