England cricketers tee off in Kurmitola

There were no training sessions scheduled for the visiting England cricket team on Saturday as they arrived in Dhaka for a month-long tour of Bangladesh on Friday night. And eight members of the English side duly took advantage of their spare time, playing golf at Kurmitola Golf Club while the others opted to stay at the team hotel. Jos Buttler and his troop are scheduled to practise at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday ahead of their three ODIs and two Test matches against the Tigers. Earlier, a 34-member English contingent, including 16 players and 18 officials, set foot in the capital with the exception of head coach Trevor Bayliss,who is likely to arrive this Tuesday after a visa paper work delayed his visit. England arrived in Dhaka after an overnight stay in Abu Dhabi as the Bangladesh government ensured the highest level of security following the terrorist attack on July 1. Meanwhile, team director Andrew Strauss and England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison also accompanied the side as they feel it’s the right thing to do for the bosses to be with the players after giving the green signal for the tour. “We are really happy to be here. We feel very comfortable and satisfied with the security. It was a long journey to get here physically and metaphorically and quite rightly, the players had concerns over security but Reg Dickason (team security officer) has done a fantastic job allaying those concerns,” Strauss was quoted as saying to The Telegraph. “It was great to see the guys in a positive frame of mind when they met up at the airport. Once you have made that decision it becomes a lot easier mentally and now the guys are thinking about the tough cricket they are going to have to play over the next month. “There is a lot to take in to begin with. But bear in mind the majority of your time is spent at the ground and you are concentrating on balls coming down at you. It is only on journeys to and from the hotel that you see things like that (armed escorts). Actually the players if they think about it they will not see anything radically different from what happens when we tour the sub continent,” he added.