Noakhali Express’s build-up to the new Bangladesh Premier League season lurched off course on Thursday when head coach Khaled Mahmud and assistant Talha Jubair abandoned training at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, complaining they did not even have enough balls for a proper net.
The pair arrived at the ground, saw “just a handful” of practice balls and walked straight back out, climbing into a CNG auto-rickshaw parked outside. Reporters chased after them.
“I will not work in the BPL under these circumstances. I have never seen this in the BPL before,” Mahmud said through the open door. A short while later he confirmed he would not continue with the new Noakhali franchise.
Staff members tried to coax the coaches back, promising the mistake would be fixed, but Mahmud and Jubair would not budge.
Noakhali are due to face fellow newcomers Chattogram Royals on Friday, the opening day of the league’s twelfth edition. While the coaches headed off, the players – overseas recruits Johnson Charles, Kusal Mendis and Mohammad Nabi among them, plus Bangladesh names Hasan Mahmud, Soumya Sarkar and Jaker Ali – stayed on and made do with what equipment was available.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has already taken an interest. Board officials were seen around the ground soon after the incident; one senior administrator admitted privately the timing was “far from ideal”.
Noakhali were the last of four new teams confirmed for a slimmed-down six-side competition, and the franchise has had barely a month to get organised. Even so, veteran observers could not recall coaches leaving a BPL session over something as basic as practice gear.
The flare-up followed another headache for the board. Late on Wednesday the BCB was forced to assume control of Chattogram Royals after owners Triangle Services Limited pulled out, citing a lack of sponsorship. Two such stories in 24 hours have left officials firefighting when they would rather be polishing the launch.
For Mahmud, a former Bangladesh captain who has coached at several BPL outfits, the issue is about minimum standards. Earlier in the week he told friends the squad looked “competitive”. Now his immediate future is unclear, and Noakhali’s rookie management must decide whether to replace both coaches on the eve of the tournament or patch things up and move on.
Either way, the episode is an awkward reminder that the BPL, despite providing regular thrills on the field, still struggles with the off-field basics that professional cricket simply takes for granted elsewhere.
