Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan strongly indicated that it will take more time to resume cricket in Bangladesh, nullifying the chance of playing home series or domestic tournaments anytime soon.
To observe the national mourning day, Nazmul went to BCB office on Saturday and took part in a special prayer, which was his first media appearance since returning from the UK where he went for some medical treatment.
The board president told the media that the board was not considering to host any cricket matches, international or domestic, untill the COVID-19 situation in the country improves.
‘Only England are holding cricket matches now so I don’t see any point in taking a risk by trying to be brave. We have to wait,’ said Nazmul.
Cricket in Bangladesh has remained halted since mid-March, when BCB postponed the Dhaka Premier League after only the first round.
The board was trying to end the barren period by touring Sri Lanka next month, but they were in no hurry to resume the postponed DPL.
‘As far as I am concerned, the league can start under only two conditions. Firstly, if the corona situation in Bangladesh improves or if the vaccine arrives. Otherwise I don’t see any logic in starting the league,’ said the BCB boss.
Not only the DPL, franchise Twenty20 league Bangladesh Premier League, which was supposed to begin its latest edition in December this year, will also be put on hold, said Nazmul.
‘Even they [BCCI] can’t host the IPL [Indian Premier League] in India, and even though they are doing it abroad, a lot of the players are unable to take part in the tournament. There’s no guarantee that a COVID negative person won’t become COVID positive overnight.
‘Now they [health experts] are saying it’s airborne so there’s no guarantee, which means we have to decide carefully.’
With the current scenario in mind, the board wanted to send the Tigers to play in countries where the health risk was minimum and Nazmul felt that currently Sri Lanka is the safest place to tour.
‘The only reason we are sending the team to Sri Lanka is because it is one of the safest countries. Even New Zealand has gone for lockdown again. Sri Lanka hasn’t found any new cases in the last few months.’
Nazmul also said that all players will get tested multiple times before they board the flight to Sri Lanka and planned to shorten the residential camp at home.
‘We have instructed them to get tested from labs from their hometowns. We will only call the negative ones to the camp and once they arrive here, we will test them again. Then test them after 20 days.
‘I have proposed that we should shift most of the training to Sri Lanka which we can assume is a safer place. Making the training camp short here, we should go there early and hold a longer camp in Sri Lanka.’
Nazmul also claimed that the board has already rescheduled all of the bilateral series’ the Tigers missed out on due to the pandemic, other than the Autralia series.
‘We have already rescheduled all the postponed series, except the one with Australia. Because we can’t match timing with them, otherwise we can play all the postponed series in new schedule’.
The BCB president also hinted about the possible inclusion of Shakib Al Hasan in the team as his sanction period was nearing its end and also asked the media to handle this matter with more caution.
‘Don’t bring him in the news too much because it may violate his suspension rules… He can’t get involved with us [before his suspension ends].’ -new age
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