Bangladesh face the risk of forfeiting another Test series against Australia with both countries’ stacked schedule making it extremely difficult to play the postponed June series at a later date after the coronavirus crisis ends.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board and Cricket Australia on Thursday announced that they have postponed Bangladesh and Australia’s two-match Test series in June.
The BCB and CA also said that they would work together to find a future window for the series which is part of the ICC World Test Championship.
The chief executive officer of CA, Kevin Roberts, said they will try their best to make sure the series eventually takes place on a suitable date.
‘As we know, the global cricket calendar is very busy but we will do everything we can to honour our commitment to Bangladesh and will continue to work with the BCB on an agreed date,’ Roberts was quoted as saying in a BCB press release on Thursday.
The BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury echoed his Australian counterpart’s statement and expressed the board’s desire to hold the series in future.
‘The BCB and CA are in agreement that this is the most sensible and practical decision. We hope that the situation will improve soon and we are able to hold this series at a convenient time in the near future,’ said Nizamuddin.
‘To that end, the BCB will continue to work closely with CA with whom we share a history of support and cooperation.’
But in reality, finding a suitable spot for the series in both teams’ busy schedule was expected to be challenging due to the disruption of the penned schedule of sporting events due to the global pandemic.
As per the present fixtures of ICC world Test Championship and other international commitments of both the teams, there are two free spots in the first fortnight of October in 2020 and in April 2021.
But Australia touring Bangladesh in October is quite impractical as they will be hosting the ICC World Twenty20 during that time.
The hosts’ campaign in that tournament will begin on October 24 due to their higher rank in the Twenty20 rankings while Bangladesh will play the first round, starting on October 19, making a Test series in the month highly unlikely.
The second open window is in April, 2021, but the Indian Premier League is set to take place in that slot, where many of Australia’s key players will be busy.
The CA has the option to send a second-string Australia side to Bangladesh but that is a risk they are unlikely to take.
In Australia’s last Test series in Bangladesh in 2017, the hosts defeated a full-strength Australian side in the first Test, their first victory over the side in Test.
The visitors levelled the series with a win in the second Test in a hard-fought contest.
Sending a second-string team will increase the chances of defeat against Bangladesh, something that would be hugely detrimental for them in the ICC Test Championship.
Australia are currently second in the Test championship points table, trailing India by 64 points.
A clean sweep against Bangladesh could fetch Australia 120 points, something India did last year by beating Bangladesh by an innings margin in both Tests in India, and Australia would want to do the same to stay in hunt in the Test Championship.
This was also not the first time a Test series against Australia got stopped in its tracks.
In 2015, Australia postponed their Bangladesh tour at the final moment due to security concerns and the series finally took place two years later.
Australia were supposed to host Bangladesh for a full series in 2018 which they postponed, citing financial loss and scheduling complexity, and finally forfeited.
While visiting Bangladesh to enjoy the final of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League, top executives of BCB and CA had some discussions, after which the BCB CEO said the 2018 series is a ‘Closed Chapter’.
Global sports calendar is in disarray due to the COVID-19 outbreak as many large-scale events, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, were pushed back to next year.
In the scramble to fit in every postponed event after the pandemic, Australia’s tour of Bangladesh could very likely get lost in the shuffle.
-new age
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