The less I remember it, the better: Mahmudullah, on Christchurch shootings

Sunday marked exactly one year since the horrific terrorist shootings at the Christchurch mosque in New Zealand and Bangladesh stalwart Mahmudullah Riyad was keen to move on from that incident.

The Bangladesh players, who were touring New Zealand at that time, were incredibly close to the mosque when the shootings were taking place before the Friday Jummah prayers.

They were set to pray there, but a slight delay in the press conference, which Mahmudullah was attending, meant that by the time the Bangladesh players had come close to the mosque, the shooting had already started.

Luckily, the team escaped the gruesome scene without any physical harm done, but the sight of the shootings and what happened still haunts the 34-year-old.

"After waking up in the morning, I remembered the Christchurch shootings. The less I can remember it the better. Just want to move on and move forward from that incident," he told the media on Sunday.

The Dhaka Premier League has been going on despite the worldwide coronavirus outbreak and even fans were allowed inside the stadium.

"Everyone is aware of the coronavirus. We need to keep our hand clean and stay as clean as possible. We just need to give everyone this message to keep clean. It's a great sign to see so many people at the grounds. Shows how much they care about our cricket," Mahmudullah said.

The twenty20 international (T20I) team captain also gave his support for newly appointed one-day international (ODI) captain Tamim Iqbal: "Tamim is a capable candidate as captain and I fully give my support to him."