England batting continues to stumble

West Indies 132 for 3 (Gayle 58*) beat England 131 for 7 (Morgan 43*) by seven wickets
Scorecard

England captain Eoin Morgan was forced to address more questions of England's batting after a miserable performance saw them swept aside by seven-wickets by West Indies in their opening World T20 warm-up.

Despite a new "solar red" kit, England, as they did in the Caribbean, lost wickets in the Powerplay and brought their middle order to the wicket sooner than they would have liked. England's top three were dismissed by the end of the sixth over and made only 45 runs between them.

"It did hurt us a bit," Morgan said. "It was tough to get going. Their spinners are high class, they take wickets early and we've struggled with that. We never really got any substantial partnerships going which was disappointing given the progress we made at the back end of the West Indies trip."

England ended their tour of the Caribbean with a victory in the final T20 but a change of scenery saw them relapse despite conditions that Morgan described as similar to the West Indies.

"The only difference is the bounce," he said. "There is similar turn and similar pace here but it doesn't go through. We know about the lower bounce out here and that's something we have to adjust to quickly. Hopefully we can do that sooner rather than later."

England set just 132 in Fatullah, a target West Indies golluped down in only 16.1 overs, and managed to hit only one six, a shortcoming Morgan was not too concerned over.

"I don't think that's the real problem," he said. "You can never just concentrate on hitting sixes, getting the fours is more important. Around 82% of games are won by the side who hit the most fours. We never put ourselves in a position to take their bowling on. They bowled well but we didn't play well enough to take them on."

England head to Mirpur for their final warm-up against India before the competition proper begins for them on Saturday against New Zealand in Chittagong. Morgan was hopeful that Stuart Broad would "pull up well" but won't have Luke Wright available, who has a side strain. Ian Bell, called up despite having not played a T20 for England since January 2011, won't be considered.

"We have a range of options which is a good thing," Morgan said. "Moeen's at three at the moment and he offers us some off spin too. Wrighty has done it too and been pretty solid. We are quite versatile and flexible and that can be dangerous when we fire. It's a strength of ours.

"We've always been quite adamant about playing warm-ups as competitive games and trying to get confidence by winning those games. Since 2010-11 Ashes we've always made these games as competitive as we can because we feel we get more out of it that way.

"The last game at Mirpur early on it didn't bounce and later on it carried through. It's about adjusting accordingly. I've scored some runs there in the past but it can vary on the surface and what time of day you bat."

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No going back over KP - Clarke

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, has said there is no going back to Kevin Pietersen, putting a line through any speculation of a potential England recall.

Clarke said the decision to sack Pietersen was a "brave one" as England look to rebuild following the disastrous Ashes tour and Andy Flower stepping down as team director. His message to England supporters clamouring for Pietersen's return was to "move on".

"Who plays for England is a matter for the national selectors and their decision was a brave one," Clarke told the Evening Standard. "You select your captain, you discuss what that captain requires, what he's looking for. He has to decide what that team is about and what needs doing. This is about the culture of the team."

Pietersen was sacked in February for breaking team ethics and the only possible path back into the national side would be via a new head coach who insisted on Pietersen's selection. Clarke appeared to have ruled out such a scenario.

"English supporters must move on. There isn't going to be any going back, that's for sure. The Ashes tour was a watershed.

"Your No. 3 batsman leaves the tour after the first Test. That's pretty cataclysmic, frankly. Then your world-class offspinner retires. You cannot stop men retiring even during a series. Then you lose the series. You've got to build a team. You're going to need to make changes."

Creating a new team ethic is at the heart of England's rebuilding, under new managing director Paul Downton, and Clarke is hoping English cricket can learn from rugby, where head coach Stuart Lancaster has led a revival.

"Lancaster has done a fantastic job," Clarke said. "In a very short space of time, he has sorted out English rugby. He's talked the language of teams that Paul Downton and I like very much.

"Paul said to me, 'If you look at the most successful sporting team over the last 100 years, of course, it is the All Blacks'. One of the fundamentals they live by is the team. You just don't get to play if you don't believe in it. In the end the team must matter."

Pietersen may have been judged to not believe in Team England anymore but the Delhi Daredevils feel he is the right man for them, appointing him as captain for the new IPL season. Delhi are coached by Gary Kirsten - seen by many as the outstanding candidate to become England's new head coach; Kirsten has ruled himself out of the running.

England will appoint a new head coach in May ahead of the Test series against Sri Lanka but for the immediate future they enter their second World T20 running without the player who led them to their maiden global title in 2010, when Pietersen was Man of the Series in the Caribbean. Their preparations took a further blow with a crushing defeat to West Indies in their opening warm-up match in Fatullah.

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'Never seen such dew in my life' - Al-Amin

Bangladesh seamer Al-Amin Hossain hasn't played too many evening matches in his young career, so the dew on the outfield of the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium surprised him. Ultimately, it was a matter of controlling the ball when delivering it. Bangladesh did that right against Nepal, restricting them to an under-par 126 and setting up their eight-wicket win.

It was a challenge from the start for Al-Amin, who had to contend with a wet seam early in his first over. Despite a difficult first over, in which he bowled three wides and conceded a boundary, he ended up with an impressive 2 for 17 from four overs.

"The dew made it hard to control from the first over," Al-Amin said. "I was thinking afterwards that I had to make amends in the next three overs. The wicket had grass, and I had to make it count.

"It is my first (T20) World Cup, and just my third T20 match at this level. I thought my bowling in the first match wasn't too bad but I had to improve on it. I was trying to make a comeback in this game and it went pretty well."

He removed Sagar Pun off a catch to cover and two balls later, he had Gyanendra Malla with an excellent delivery that cut back in to the right-hander from a length, trapping him leg-before. Al-Amin has been training to bowl cross-seam deliveries to counter any trouble when bowling with a straight seam.

"I bowled a few wides but I must say, I have never faced such dew in my life. I saw the seam was wet when I looked at it before bowling the second ball. I bowled cross-seam for a while and then I used the seam when it was better," he said.

If the spinners had picked up wickets like they did against Afghanistan, Bangladesh would have finished off the game quicker. Al-Amin added that Nepal's eventual score wasn't good enough.

"They batted defensively, and I think they wanted to bat 20 overs. They didn't take too many chances. I think 126 is a normal score, not a large one. There was no chance to relax.

"This is a do-or-die match. We tried to play good cricket. We took a few early wickets but if Shakib bhai [Al Hasan] and Raj bhai [Abdur Razzak] could have got us a few more in the middle overs, we could have wrapped them up for a smaller total," he said.

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Nepal batting fails to hit the heights

Nepal have hit some heights recently - coming from "the roof of the world" should mean they can handle them - but they were unable to sustain the dizzying altitude achieved by winning their first World T20 match as they came up against the hosts, Bangladesh, who had the bit between their teeth during an eight-wicket win.

Victory against Hong Kong, although by a huge margin, had been founded on steady batting followed by disciplined attack with the ball against nervy opponents. Bangladesh were always going to ramp the pressure up a few notches, with reputation as well as qualification on the line, and although Nepal put in another solid display after being inserted they were unable to achieve the required upwards curve at the end of their innings.

Nepal's coach, Pubudu Dassanayake, was understandably pleased with the way his team had acquitted themselves in their first encounter with a Test-playing nation but regretted that the batting fell away again, this time to more costly effect.

"They went through the plans well," he said of his players. "We wanted to be 90-100 for not too many down in the 15th over. They did what we asked of them. But what we lacked was a good finish. If we had got 140-145 things might have been different. Overall I'm very happy with the quality of shots they played and the aggression that they showed. It was a good game for us, despite the result."

Nepal were 86 for 3 after 15 overs, with Paras Khadka and Sharad Vesawkar well set after coming together with the score on 39. Fourteen runs came in the 17th over but they otherwise struggled to find the boundary, a situation compounded at the end when Al-Amin Hossain conceded just a single and a wide from the final six balls.

As happened two nights ago, Khadka was forced to rebuild after Nepal's openers perished for insubstantial scores. Dassanayake said that Al-Amin's dismissal of No. 3 Gyanendra Malla for 13 was key and backed Subash Khakurel and Sagar Pun to continue developing into an effective partnership at the top of the order.

"In the last two games I've been happy with the way Subash and Sagar shaped up," he said. "We've had an issue with the openers for a while but we started believing in them and they have begun to play as a pair, as a partnership. They are showing the quality, but still they have to get more runs. That will come. Paras is leading from the front and showing his quality at this level. We missed Gyanendra a bit today, when he was dismissed early. He's another one who can score at this level."

Nepal first planted a flag in world cricket by winning the Plate Championship at the 2006 Under-19 World Cup, with a team featuring Khadka, Vesawkar, Malla and spinner Basant Regmi, who claimed 1 for 14 from three tidy overs against Bangladesh. All of Nepal's players are homegrown, in contrast to many Associates, and Dassanayake praised the system that has underpinned their impressive rise through the tiers of ICC competition, culminating in what has been a hugely impressive debut World T20 appearance.

"Looking at Nepal, the national team and the youngsters, they're very sound technically," he said. "The most important part is that they train very hard and play very hard. That is what we are, our brand of cricket. If you saw the qualifiers in Dubai, we fought in every game to the last ball. Top-quality fielding, the bowlers stuck to plans, the batsmen were well aware of what was needed in a chase, how to plan an innings. Today was a bit different, because of the occasion of playing against a Full Member country."

Dassanayake stressed Nepal would not be looking beyond Afghanistan, their final opponents, but qualification for the Super 10 is still not beyond them, should Bangladesh suffer a shock against Hong Kong on Thursday. The way the hosts clinically disposed of Nepal suggests that is unlikely, with a significant swing in run rate required, and the coach was happy that his side had prevented the contest becoming a mismatch.

"Batting 20 overs comfortably against a top quality team that is also the home side is an achievement," he said. "We did have a few plans that we could not execute during the bowling part of the game but this is part of the learning process. The boys have shown that they are up to it."

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Rising Associate v struggling Full Member

Match Facts

March 17, 2014
Start time 1530 local (0930 GMT)

Big Picture

One is a Full Member and one an Associate. That itself tells the story, and also does not. Zimbabwe are probably the poorest advertisement for a Full Member with their chronic struggles - financial, administrative, cricketing. But they continue to be a Full Member. Ireland are probably the best advertisement for an Associate, banging hard on the door of cricket's small and privileged clique with encouraging performances. But they continue to be an Associate. One can argue in favour of changing the status quo in both cases.

In that sense, this is a clash filled with significance, both symbolic and real, for the wider cricketing world. Symbolic because it pits one still included mostly by virtue of being already in against one still excluded mostly by virtue of having never been allowed in.

Real because Bangladesh v Afghanistan and Ireland v Zimbabwe were widely expected to be the two games that would decide who qualifies for the Super 10 stage of the World T20. Bangladesh could have slipped on the banana peel again, like they did in the Asia Cup, but this time, they crushed it. Both Ireland and Zimbabwe will have probably seen that and drawn their lessons from it.

Zimbabwe have endured the embarrassment of a loss to Hong Kong in the warm-ups but rebounded by downing Ireland's fellow Associate high-fliers Afghanistan. Ireland beat Nepal in their first practice game but were then quelled by Bangladesh. Both sides can claim the upper hand on various counts. Zimbabwe have subsisted on training sessions and practice games for months now, while Ireland have recently defeated West Indies in the Caribbean.

Zimbabwe have been to Bangladesh many more times than Ireland have, and their players have been a regular feature in Bangladeshi leagues such as the BPL and the DPL.

Neither side has played in Sylhet, though, and the brand new Sylhet Divisional Stadium would be a fitting location for those seeking to establish a new order to challenge the old, and the old to resist them.

Form guide

Ireland LWWWL
Zimbabwe LLLWL

Watch out for

Zimbabwe have not played international cricket since September, so there is little to go by in terms of current form. Hamilton Masakadza struck 93 off just 52 balls, including seven sixes, against Afghanistan in the warm-up. He likes to take his time in the one-dayers, but once in the mood, he can cause plenty of damage in quick time. He also has three T20 hundreds to his name.

Paul Stirling may not have a hundred in the format, but by the time he falls, he's often set the match up for Ireland with his uninhibited hitting. To have a strike-rate of close to 140 over 84 games takes some doing, and to add to that, he can also be utilised for some overs of offspin, something that Ireland will likely find handy in Bangladesh.

Team news

William Porterfield spoke highly of the young offspinner Andy McBrine, saying he had impressed over the last six weeks in the West Indies and in the warm-up matches. The combination of the experienced George Dockrell and the rookie McBrine could test Zimbabwe, who have tended to struggle against spin in the past.

Ireland 1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Ed Joyce, 4 Andrew Poynter, 5 Gary Wilson (wk), 6 Kevin O'Brien, 7 Max Sorensen, 8 Alex Cusack, 9 Tim Murtagh, 10 George Dockrell, 11 Andy McBrine/Stuart Thompson

Zimbabwe have brought along two legspinners in Tafadzwa Kamungozi and Natsai M'Shangwe. The 26-year old Kamungozi last played for Zimbabwe back in 2006. Sikandar Raza has opened with Hamilton Masakadza in both the warm-up matches. Will Zimbabwe continue with the same pairing or go back to Vusi Sibanda at the top of the order?

Zimbabwe 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Sikandar Raza, 3 Brendan Taylor (capt & wk), 4 Vusi Sibanda, 5 Sean Williams, 6 Malcolm Waller, 7 Elton Chigumbura, 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Natsai M'Shangwe/Tafadzwa Kamungozi, 10 Tinashe Panyangara, 10 Tendai Chatara/Brian Vitori/Shingi Masakadza

Stats and trivia

• Ireland beat Zimbabwe in the previous meeting between the two sides, a one-dayer in 2010
• This will be the first T20 between the two sides
• Sylhet will become the 208th international cricket venue

Quotes

"The fact that we haven't played them in a T20 before does not really matter. When you play against each other in international cricket, everyone knows pretty much everyone."
Ireland captain William Porterfield

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Netherlands seek batting turnaround

Match facts

March 17, 2014
Start time 1930 local (1330 GMT)

Big picture

The scene outside the Sylhet Divisional Stadium was typically subcontinental. Long queues stretched outside the ticket windows, heated arguments ensued when someone tried to sneak in, and there were plenty of security personnel. The only difference was that hosts Bangladesh are not going to play in Sylhet.

Try filling a 14000-capacity stadium in India for a game not involving MS Dhoni's side. Then try doing it for a match involving two Associate teams. Good luck with that. This is what makes Bangladeshis probably the most passionate followers of the game on the subcontinent, and by extension, the world. Teams such as Netherlands and UAE could not have got a hungrier audience.

Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain, said at the press conference that no one would recognise his players on the streets of Amsterdam. They might go unnoticed in Sylhet as well, at least for now, but the crowd will nevertheless appreciate what Borren and his men have to offer.

Borren will hope the offerings do not mirror what his batsmen have dished out in the warm-up matches. Against Hong Kong, they were 84 for 3 in the 12th over chasing 128, and collapsed to 100 all out. Against Afghanistan, they were 49 for 2 in the sixth over chasing 122 in 15, and slumped to 86 all out. An exasperated Borren had said he was pi**ed off with his batsmen. There is no reason for him to have that feeling with a varied attack in which up to eight men can be counted upon to contribute.

Netherlands will need all the contributions they can come up with, for as the UAE captain Khurram Khan said, his side are more used to the slow-and-low tracks that Bangladesh usually offers. While a world event is not exactly unfamiliar territory for Netherlands, UAE will be out to enjoy what Khurram called the "biggest moment" for his players when they walk out under lights on Monday evening.

Watch out for

Given their batting woes in the warm-ups, Netherlands will be glad they will have the services of Tom Cooper, who is an injury replacement for Tim Gruijters. Cooper brings with him years of experience in the Australian domestic circuit, which could prove useful in case Netherlands threaten to implode again.

If the Sylhet pitch plays anywhere close to how Dhaka and Chittagong usually do, the veteran left-arm spinner Shadeep Silva, who began his career in Sri Lanka, should enjoy bowling on it. Another veteran is captain Khurram Khan, who at 42 is still his side's leading batsman. Who said T20 is a young man's game?

Teams

Netherlands (from): Peter Borren (capt), Wesley Barresi (wk), Mudassar Bukhari, Ben Cooper, Tom Cooper, Tom Heggelman, Ahsan Malik, Vivian Kingma, Stephan Myburgh, Michael Rippon, Pieter Seelaar, Michael Swart, Eric Szwarczynski, Logan van Beek, Timm van der Gugten

UAE (from): Khurram Khan (capt), Ahmed Raza, Amjad Ali, Amjad Javed, Faizan Asif, Manjula Guruge, Kamran Shazad, Moaaz Qazi, Swapnil Patil (wk), Rohan Mustafa, Rohit Singh, Shaiman Anwar, Sharif Asadullah, Vikrant Shetty, Shadeep Silva

Stats and trivia

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Borren vows to make amends for World Cup exit

"No one knows the Netherlands cricket team in Holland," said Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain, responding to a question on cricket having a significantly smaller following compared to football back home. With such a tiny cricket base, Borren said he was proud of what his side had achieved in the past decade, having represented the nation in multiple world tournaments. Failure to qualify for the 2015 World Cup has been a huge setback, though, and Borren hoped his team could prosper enough in the World T20 to show the world that Netherlands cricket had not regressed.

"Cricket is not a very big sport in Holland," Borren said. "Football and hockey are huge. We come here representing a very small cricketing community. We are very proud to do that. We are not going to be walking around in Amsterdam and people recognising us. It is not like (footballer Robin) van Persie or anything like that.

"For us to come and represent Holland on the global stage is a very big achievement actually for Netherlands cricket because it is not a big sport there and we hope that in the last ten years we have had some opportunities to do that. The cricketing community is not so big but Holland has done very well in that sense. We are very proud of what we have done.

"We hope to cause some upsets here, perhaps we can grow the sport a little bit more in Holland then. I guess every time the national team does well and we can get some sort of press coverage back home, that is a real bonus and hopefully we can get more people keen on the game in Holland and we can go from strength to strength from there."

Borren said the importance of the World T20 for Netherlands had increased after the recent World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand, where they finished fourth in their group and lost their ODI status. "The significance of this tournament because of what happened in New Zealand is now greater. It is an opportunity for us in a way to make a bit of a statement that what happened in New Zealand was not a fair reflection of where this team has come in the last three years. It is quite a cut-throat sort of tournament, you can have a bad day and you cannot afford it. We had two of those in New Zealand and I guess that really cost us.

"Coming here straight after is a very good thing for us. As I said, we have a chance to make amends, to prove to people, not just back home in Holland, but in the Associate world, also the world of cricket, that Netherlands cricket has improved in the last three-four years and we are better than what happened in New Zealand."

Borren expected his bowlers to play a big role in helping Netherlands achieve that aim in the World T20. While he hoped his batsmen's struggles in the warm-up games would not affect their performance in the tournament, he said his attack, which includes a left-arm chinaman spinner, could make it difficult for opposition line-ups.

"We have got a lot of variety in our attack actually. It is very easy for me out in the middle as I have eight guys who can bowl and for different batters and wickets, we have got options. It is not necessary that our bowlers have to bowl four overs either. Someone could come on, bowl one over, do the job and get out of there again.

"That is a real bonus for me as a captain. Sometimes it gets difficult in T20 if you have only five-six bowlers. Very happy with our attack, the way we have been going in the last two matches. I think we are going to present a good challenge to the batting opposition in our next three games."

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'We want to do it for our people' - Khadka

On the eve of Holi, the Hindu festival that will be celebrated throughout Nepal, the country's cricket team provided another reason rejoice. Not that they need much excuse. Nepal's cricket following is perhaps more widely known than many of the players, although the captain, Paras Khadka, is making quite a mark at the World T20, where he led his team to an exhilarating victory over Hong Kong on their tournament debut.

Cheered on by a strong contingent of Chittagong-based Nepalis, mostly made up university students, and in front of a global TV audience, Nepal showed their nerve as well as their skill. Khadka described victory as "gift to our people", thousands of whom had turned out to watch the game on big screens in town squares around the country. Holi, known as the festival of colour, will be all the more vibrant because of it.

"That's what we play for, as cricketers, the fan following and the amount of love and support that everybody gives us," he said, "I think it is one of the biggest motivational factors for us to do well. Everywhere we go, all over the world, we get massive support and we want to do it for our people. It's the colour festival back home, so it's one of our gifts to our people. We're pretty happy with what we did today."

Nepal's story has been one for the romantics but the ardour has been known to overtake the players. Attacking strokes abounded, particularly from the openers in a rapid partnership but Nepal were indebted to a cool-headed partnership between Khadka and Gyanendra Malla, two of the team's most experienced players. The innings fell away again after Khadka's departure, with 33 scored off the last 22 balls as Nepal just failed to pass 150.

"That's something we are used to, both of us have been doing it for a very long time so it was nothing new for us," Khadka said of his stand with Malla. "Thankfully we had a very good start, building up the momentum. I still feel we should have got at least 10-15 runs more than we did but in a tournament like this you need to execute everything right.

"Fortunately today Hong Kong didn't have a very good day with the bat but then, if you want to do well in the tournament, I'd say we were short. As batsmen we try to build it up for the latter stages, the finishing wasn't as good as we wanted but as long as we win we'll take it every day."

With the hosts, Bangladesh, next up, Khadka was already eyeing areas for improvement. Nepal's fanbase will be swamped by an equally passionate home crowd on Tuesday - although Khadka said his players would be "only hearing the Nepali supporters" - with the winner taking a significant step towards the second round, after Bangladesh's emphatic win over Afghanistan.

"We have done most things right today but there are still a lot of things we need to do, especially against Bangladesh," Khadka said. "They had a very good day as well so it's a matter of starting all over again."

Jamie Atkinson, Hong Kong's captain, cut a contrasting figure after the game, the disappointment plain to see on his face. He said that the performance "wasn't really a true reflection of Hong Kong cricket", which is probably fair after impressive performances against more-established sides during the warm-ups. Both Hong Kong and Nepal were playing their first T20 internationals, as well as being introduced to the pressure of performing in front of TV audience running into the millions. "In the end it was probably the big stage that got to us," Atkinson said.

"We had a good build up to the match, there was a relaxed feeling in the dressing-room. It was a big game for Hong Kong cricket, as it was for Nepal. In the end they've handled that better than us. There was quite a big crowd for a Hong Kong game and we haven't really experienced that in the past. That contributed a bit. There was always going to be nerves among all the players, being a first T20I for every single player in the team."

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Stokes breaks wrist punching locker

Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the World T20 after breaking his wrist when he punched a locker in the dressing room following his dismissal in the final T20 against West Indies.

He will be replaced for the event by Chris Woakes, the Warwickshire allrounder, and it is the second enforced change to England's squad following the broken thumb sustained by Joe Root earlier in the tour.

Stokes was dismissed first ball in the third T20, bowled by Krishmar Santokie, and the injury occurred a short while later in the dressing room.

"I am really disappointed to be missing out on going to a World T20 with England," Stokes said. "It was a huge error in judgement following a frustrating tour for me and I deeply regret my behaviour. I would like to wish the team all the very best in Bangladesh."

Stokes' tour with the bat brought scores of 5, 4, 0, 4 and 0 while he also had a very limited role to play with the ball. It has been a rapid decline in fortunes after he was one of the few England players to emerge with any credit from the Ashes tour after scoring a hundred in Perth and putting in some feisty bowling displays.

It is unclear at the moment what the recovery timeframe will be for Stokes and whether he will be available for the start of Durham's County Championship season.

Woakes, meanwhile, has played just four T20s for England, the most recent being against New Zealand, at The Oval, last June. He has claimed two wickets in those matches and has an economy rate of over 10 an over.

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Duncan Fletcher's job safe - BCCI secretary

The India coaching staff, comprising the trio of Duncan Fletcher, Trevor Penney and Joe Dawes has received the "wholehearted" support of the BCCI in the wake of raging criticism in the media recently. In the wake of India's defeats on the overseas tours of South Africa and New Zealand and their early exit from the Asia Cup prompted critics to point fingers at the trio, including former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who said he would give Fletcher a rating of 1.5 on a scale of 10 for his coaching acumen.

"We deny all reports about Fletcher's job being in danger," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told ESPNcricinfo. "Everything will continue as it is. No difference (with regards to the coaching staff). Duncan wanted to continue, and he has our whole-hearted support from BCCI."

Fletcher, who took over as the head coach in 2011 after Gary Kirsten left the position, had signed a one-year extension to his contract last year. Although his contract comes to an end on March 31, both he and the BCCI had mutually agreed earlier to continue till the end of the World T20. Despite the BCCI insisting that it had no plans to oust Fletcher, the speculation in the media has persisted about his future.

But when Fletcher did not land along with the rest of the Indian squad in Dhaka earlier today, and instead went to Chennai to meet BCCI president N Srinivasan and Patel and few other senior board officials, the doubts grew louder about the coach's fate. However Patel silenced all the doubters, denying all claims of the BCCI deciding to sack anyone from the coaching staff.

Asked if the renewal of the coaching staff's contracts were discussed, Patel said it was a routine meeting where the BCCI wanted to take stock of the situation. "It was a normal meeting. Unfortunately due to a busy schedule we could not meet the coaches. Normally what happens is during our one-on-one meetings we (BCCI and coach) discuss what their requirements are and if they need any extra support and all such things. Since we had not met for a while, we decided to call the coaches," Patel said.

An annoyed Patel rubbished speculation brewing in the media and even questioned certain reports. "Who are we to give an ultimatum? And will a person like Duncan listen to us giving any ultimatum? There was no discussion about any such thing," Patel said. "People are using words like summons issued to coaches. Are they culprits to be issued summons?"

However, India captain MS Dhoni had to face the question about Fletcher when he landed in Dhaka for his first press conference ahead of the World T20, having skipped the traditional pre-tour press conference . Asked about the coach's absence, Dhoni refused to answer. The Indian team's media manager even said they were not aware of any meeting between the coach and the BCCI.

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