Tigers reach Belfast

The Bangladesh cricket team's tour of England and Ireland moved to Belfast yesterday as they reached the Northern Ireland capital at around 11:00am local time (4:00pm Bangladesh time).

The flight from Gatwick airport in London, scheduled to take off at 7:50am, was delayed by around an hour and 40 minutes, with the Tigers spending 70 minutes in the aircraft before getting off as a technical issue was resolved, informed a Bangladesh Cricket Board official on tour with the team.

Bangladesh will play a tri-series involving the hosts and New Zealand in Ireland, starting on May 12 with a match against Ireland in Dublin. They will then travel back to England to take part in the Champions Trophy, which will begin when Bangladesh take on England in the opener on June 1.

The team departed from Dhaka on April 27 to take part in a 10-day training camp in Sussex, which involved to practice matches against the Duke of Norfolk's XI and a Sussex XI. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman and all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who recently concluded their Indian Premier League stints, joined the team yesterday in Brighton.

ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who had travelled back to Dhaka to be with his ailing wife, also joined the team in Belfast at noon yesterday. The team will have their first practice session in Ireland today.