Ahead of their ODI World Cup 2023 match against Sri Lanka, the Bangladesh cricket team on Friday cancelled their training session in Delhi in order to protect their players from the air pollution in the city.
The Bangladesh team had arrived in Delhi on Wednesday for their game against Sri Lanka on November 6.
The Shakib Al Hasan led side had scheduled three training sessions at Arun Jaitley Stadium, with the first of those between 6pm and 9pm IST on Friday but now is left with two days of practice.
Notably, Delhi-NCR’s air quality deteriorated further on Friday, breaching the ‘400’ danger mark on a scale of 500 with AQI reaching alarming levels in several places. This poor situation has prompted a ban on non-essential construction work, the closure of primary schools and restrictions on diesel, petrol vehicles operating in and around Delhi.
However, there has been no conversation between the ICC and BCCI about moving the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka match, which is set to be played on Monday, an ESPNcricinfo report said.
“We actually had a training session today, but due to worsening conditions, we didn’t take the chance,” said Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud.
“We have two more training days. Some of us developed coughing, so there’s a risk factor. We don’t want to get sick. We don’t know if things will improve, but we have training tomorrow. We want all the players to be fit for the important game coming up on November 6,” he added.
Bangladesh, who are lying at the ninth spot in the points table, have their training session on Saturday in the evening, while on Sunday they are scheduled to train from 2pm.
Earlier, BCCI had said it would not allow any fireworks displays for the remaining games in Mumbai and Delhi because of the poor air-quality in these two cities.