'I will not work in the BPL' - Noakhali Express coaches raise a stink over poor arrangements

Noakhali Express head coach Khaled Mahmud stormed out of the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Thursday during a training session a day before the start of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) season, getting into an auto rickshaw with assistant coach Talha Jubair after complaining about the lack of arrangements for training, including the paucity of balls.

The duo, however, later returned to the stadium, with Mahmud calling the incident a "misunderstanding".*

It started when the coaches arrived for training at the stadium on Thursday, with Express scheduled to take on Chattogram Royals in a contest between two new teams on the tournament's opening day on Friday, they found just a handful of practice balls.

Mahmud and Jubair walked out of the stadium immediately.

"I will not work in the BPL under these circumstances. I have never seen this in the BPL before," Mahmud told reporters while getting into the vehicle, locally called CNG. He later said that he would not be working with the Noakhali franchise.

A few members of the team's staff tried to persuade Mahmud and Jubair to return to the venue, assuring them that the mistake would not be repeated. Mahmud, however, didn't change his stance.

The players, though, continued training at the Sylhet stadium after the coaches left. They have in their ranks prominent overseas players like Johnson Charles, Kusal Mendis and Mohammad Nabi, as well as Bangladesh stars Hasan Mahmud, Soumya Sarkar and Jaker Ali.

Mahmud later said that he "may have overreacted" after not receiving sufficient facilities during training. "It was a misunderstanding," he said. "I think I may have overreacted in the moment. There were not enough facilities in training. I didn't get the equipments I needed. That's when I lost my temper. I think I behaved poorly at that instance. I want to thank the owners. I spoke to them. The BCB have also spoken to me."

ESPNcricinfo understands that the incident has caught BCB's attention, and the board is looking into the matter. Noakhali is one of the four new franchises in this season's BPL. It was the last team to be brought into the tournament this season, where six instead of seven teams will be taking part.

The incident took place just a few hours after the BCB had taken over the reins at Chattogram Royals after their owners, Triangle Services Limited, gave up the franchise citing lack of sponsor interest.

The two incidents just 24 hours before the start of the BPL's twelfth edition has clearly rocked the BCB, and many of their high-ranking officials were spotted at the stadium afterwards.