England's World Cup showdown with Bangladesh on Friday could be disrupted by a huge tropical rain storm, forecasters say.
"Storms accompanied by hail and rain could well hit any part of the country in the next 24 hours," a weather bulletin issued by the Chittagong office of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said on Thursday.
Both teams need victory to boost their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals.
The tropical storms of Bangladesh can be violent with heavy deluges known to cause houses to collapse, sometimes with loss of life.
The storms, locally known as Kalboishaki, occur when temperatures rise beyond 30 Celsius -- as they have done -- and this natural phenomena continues until the arrival of the monsoon wind from the Bay of Bengal in early June.
Generally, Kalboishaki hit without any warning. "It brews up and hits suddenly. We cannot detect it and say when and where it is going to hit," Abdur Rahman, a meteorologist, said.
"But during this season we regularly issue general warnings, although we cannot pinpoint the time and the area to be hit," Rahman said.
"We should always keep in mind that storms may spoil the show at any moment during the March-May storm season."
He continued: "It is pretty hot in Chittagong now, so we can only warn people that Kalboishaki may hit," he said.
So far, only one match at this World Cup has been abandoned through rain -- Sri Lanka's Group A match with holders Australia on March 5 in the capital Colombo.
