Bangladesh’s return to international cricket got pushed back once again as Sri Lanka Cricket informed on Tuesday that the Tigers’ next month’s tour to the island nation was postponed due to Bangladesh Cricket Board’s decision to pull out of the series.
The announcement came just one day after New Zealand Cricket and the BCB mutually decided to postpone New Zealand’s tour to Bangladesh in August, which took the number of cancelled Tests for Bangladesh in this calendar year to eight.
SLC had expressed their desire to host the two-Test series, but the BCB high ups didn’t share their interest, citing a ‘lack of preparation’ as the main reason for not sending their team for the series.
‘Bangladesh Cricket Board has informed SLC that a conducive environment has still not arrived for their players to take part in an international cricket series, purely due to the lack of preparation for its players, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,’ a statement issued on SLC’s official website read.
BCB’s cricket operations committee chairman Akram khan echoed that statement, saying that it was the BCB who denied to travel to Sri Lanka due to lack of preparation.
‘Actually, we declined to go to Sri Lanka. As sporting activities are stopped here for a long time, cricketers were not in action. So it was tough for our selectors to pick a squad,’ Akram told New Age.
‘Situation is not in favour of resuming training and we aren’t seeing any chance of the scenario changing anytime soon. Therefore, from our end, we explained our situation,’ he added.
Earlier, chief selector Minhazul Abedin and BCB director Khaled Mahmud also inferred that at current situation the Sri Lanka tour was highly unlikely to take place on schedule.
Sri Lanka were also the most likely candidate for this year’s Asia Cup, if the tournament sees the light of day, after Pakistan reportedly handed over the tournament rights to them.
SLC could push to hold the two-Test series right after the regional tournament ends, which was scheduled to take place in September, but Akram saw very low chances of that happening.
‘At first it has to be decided where the Asia Cup will take place, UAE or Sri Lanka? If it takes place in UAE then there is no possibility.
‘But if it takes place in Sri Lanka, there could be a possibility but as the tournament will be in Twenty20 and the postponed series was Test series, so the preparation and the players are vastly different. We are not looking for a date yet. Let the situation get better, then everything will be sorted out,’ told Akram.
With the Sri Lanka tour getting postponed, Bangladesh national team has lost five cricket engagements so far in 2020 – third part of Pakistan tour, Ireland Tour, home series against Australia and New Zealand and Sri Lanka tour. -new age
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