Bangladesh Cricket Board is staring at potential financial loss with their next two home series against Australia and New Zealand heading towards postponement or cancellation due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Bangladesh are scheduled to host Australia and New Zealand respectively in June and August for two Tests each, which are part of the ICC Test championship.
Australia series was thrown under uncertainty when their Test skipper Tim Paine called their Bangladesh tour ‘unlikely to go ahead’ on Tuesday to the Cricket Australia website.
On Friday, the New Zealand series also became uncertain with New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive officer David White indicating that they were thinking about postponing all future tours.
‘Clearly, this situation is extremely disappointing for everyone involved in sport but, given the bigger picture, and the terrible toll COVID-19 is taking worldwide, we need to look after not only our own people but the greater community good,’ David was quoted as saying by New Zealand Cricket.
‘Our current focus is very much on ensuring the future sustainability of cricket in New Zealand,’ he added.
The news of this potential postponement or cancellation of both series came at a time when the BCB were desperately trying to lock a new national team sponsor and appoint a new broadcaster.
The BCB’s sponsorship deal with Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever expired in January and it was in the process of naming a new sponsor before the global coronavirus pandemic began.
On January 21, BCB sought an Expression of Interest for a two-year long team sponsorship bid with a floor price of Tk 55crore.
It however could not attract any sponsor before the home series against Zimbabwe, which forced the cricket oversight body to take an interim sponsor in Akash, a DTH company owned by Beximco.
The BCB was also about to begin the process of finding a new broadcaster with its current agreement with Gazi TV set to expire at the end of this month.
The BCB’s hopes of starting a new journey with a new broadcaster and new sponsor in June with the Australia series received a jolt by the coronavirus that has infected over a million people worldwide and killed about 53,000 people.
The pandemic had earlier forced the BCB to indefinitely postpone its ‘Mujib 100’ festivities featuring two Twenty20 matches between Asia and Rest of the World XI.
It also cost them some revenue from the jersey sponsor due to the postponement of the final leg of Pakistan tour and cancelation of a series against Ireland in the UK in May.
The cancelation or delay of Australia and New Zealand series could be a bigger blow, though BCB seemed to have resigned to their fate.
‘We are in a much better position compared to some other boards that are going to lose huge revenue. It’s a situation that we cannot control,’ BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told New Age.
‘We have to wait until everything comes under control. There could be a schedule chaos which we cannot resolve. We have to get engaged with other stakeholders, including the ICC,’ he added.
BCB cricket operations chief Akram Khan said they were concerned about the financial impact of the crisis but felt that this was wrong to think about finance in the time of a global crisis.
‘This is not the right time to think or consult about it. Just pray that this situation ends soon. We will see it later,’ Akram said.
-new age
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