Bangladesh Cricket Board is in talks with its Sri Lankan counterparts to stage the two-match Test series which got postponed last year, in April, 2020, informed a BCB official.
‘We are in talks with the Sri Lankan board about the Sri Lanka series. The proposal basically came from Sri Lanka Cricket,’ BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told the media on Monday.
‘Right now, we are targeting April. Both we and Sri Lanka have a slot available at that time. We are working on it accordingly,’ he added.
The Tigers were supposed to tour Sri Lanka in October to play two Tests, which are part of the ICC World Test Championship, but the series eventually got deferred after the boards failed to come to terms about the quarantine policy.
Both boards’ first priority is to play those Test matches and additional games could get added if there is room in the calendar, said the BCB ceo.
‘We have come to an agreement that we will play the Test Championship matches and if we can find some space in our FTP we might add few other games,’ Nizamuddin said.
Earlier in September, BCB president Nazmul Hasan called the conditions imposed in the proposed quarantine policy preposterous and asked SLC to ease some of the restrictions.
But SLC said that the restrictions were put in place by its country’s COVID-19 taskforce and it didn’t have the authority to change them and both boards eventually agreed to defer the series.
However, on December 9 it was announced that England will tour the island nation in January, 2021 and the English players won’t have to isolate at their hotel rooms and will have training facilities available within three days of arrival, facilities which were not offered to Bangladesh.
BCB officials were shocked to learn about the discriminatory behaviour and even said that they would bring the matter to ICC’s attention.
SLC officials, however, stuck to their initial claim that they had no say on the matter.
Since the series got pushed back, SLC has hosted their franchise Twenty20 competition, Lanka Premier League, and the Sri Lanka team is currently taking on the Proteas in South Africa while BCB has staged two new domestic tournaments and is now preparing to host West Indies in January. -newage
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