A photograph of the West Indies team bus after it was stoned in Mirpur, taken by Bangladesh bowling coach Ian Pont © Ian Pont
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Matches: Bangladesh v West Indies at Dhaka
Series/Tournaments: ICC Cricket World Cup
Teams: Bangladesh | West Indies
The bus carrying the West Indies players has been stoned on its way back to the team hotel after they thrashed Bangladesh by nine wickets in Mirpur. There were no injuries, the team management confirmed to ESPNcricinfo, and both squads were safely back at the hotel but the players were shaken.
News of the incident spread across the world within moments and will raise questions about the security provided to teams at the tournament.
"This is some b*******," Chris Gayle tweeted moments after the incident. "Bangladesh stoning our bus!!! Freaking glass break!!! This is c***, can't believe..what next bullets!!!! Kiss teeth".
The team's media manager, Philip Spooner, confirmed that two windows cracked, but none shattered, and hence no stone made its way inside. "We left the ground, and on our way back to the hotel, a couple of stones did hit our window," Spooner said. "We are now back at the hotel, both teams are back at the hotel and are safe."
The incident occurred after West Indies completed a crushing nine-wicket victory over the hosts in a match that lasted all of 31.1 overs. The discontent among the crowd could be seen when they started throwing the placards that have "4" and "6" written on them onto the playing field the moment Bangladesh lost their last wicket to be bowled out for their lowest-ever ODI total - 58.
The stones hit the bus when it was about three minutes on its way back to the hotel. Spooner said that the team manager, Richie Richardson, would notify the respective boards and the ICC soon. There was no panic, he said. "Just make sure you mention that nobody got hurt, everybody is safe. There is no panic, everybody is fine."
Gayle was not that calm about it. He tweeted again: "This is ridiculous!!! Damn!!! W Cup with so many security an this happen!! Big Joke!!! Trust me I'm not keen here!!! Av (every) players lay flat!!!"
A Bangladesh police official said the fans had mistaken the West Indies bus for the Bangladesh bus. "The fans thought it was the Bangladeshi team bus and they hurled stones at it," Imtiaz Ahmed, deputy commissioner of police in Dhaka, told AFP. "The window panes were shattered, but no one was injured."
Mustafa Kamal, the Bangladesh Cricket Board president, apologised for the incident, but insisted that there was enough security in place. "We are sorry about the incident. This is the first time it is happening here," he said. "Now we will take extra care. Much more security measures will be taken care of."
Kamal said the stones did not come from inside the cordoned-off area, but from far away from the main road. "Enough and adequate security measures were in place," he said. "The teams were moving away from the ground to the hotel, and there were enough convoys. There were three buses: one was a dummy bus and the two others were the team buses. The entire route was cordoned off by the police, and the security was enough.
"Four or five stones came at one go from maybe five or six people standing far away from the main road. All the stones came in at one time and they were coming from far away from the main road. That's why the glass was not shattered. The matter is being investigated. Definitely, they will be able to catch the guys."
Kamal was at the team hotel to meet both sets of players. "Normally we know our crowd, they are okay," Kamal said. "The match was undoubtedly much below the expectation, and the crowd was a little upset. They wanted to show their anger and frustration against the Bangladeshi boys." However, Kamal rejected the notion that the miscreants were actually targeting the Bangladesh bus.
He said the BCB has not received any communication from the ICC yet. West Indies leave the country on Saturday morning.
