Cricket West Indies has requested their counterparts in Bangladesh to drop one Test from the scheduled three-Test series to reduce their players stay inside the bio-bubble, a Bangladesh Cricket Board official said on Wednesday.
The Caribbean side is scheduled to tour Bangladesh in January-February for three Tests, which are part of the ICC World Test Championship, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20s.
Staying in a bubble for so long could put the cricketers under tremendous psychological stress, feared CWI, and hence asked BCB to cut one Test from the itinerary, said BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury.
‘It is not final yet. The West Indies Cricket Board has requested us, as staying inside bio-bubble for a long time is tough for players. They requested to consider if it is possible to shorten the duration of the series,’ Nizamuddin told reporters on Wednesday.
‘In that case, one of the options is to curtail one Test match. We are still discussing the issues, nothing is finalised yet,’ he added.
The BCB ceo also said that the visiting team members will not have to go through a lengthy quarantine process after arrival.
‘We will follow the standard practice for the visitors which we applied for our foreign support staff. There were some foreign staff in the recently concluded tournament [BCB President’s Cup]; we practiced the same rule for them.
‘After arrival, their samples will be tested. If the test results come negative, they will be free to roam, they can practice or play. No problem with that. We will try to apply this system; we talked to concerned government departments about this also,’ he said.
Nizamuddin said BCB has already sent a bio-bubble plan for the West Indies team’s upcoming tour and according to that proposal; the selected venues for the series are Dhaka and Chattogram.
The series against West Indies is scheduled to be Bangladesh’s first international venture since the COVID-19 outbreak.
As preparation to hold an international series in the post-pandemic era, BCB has already hosted BCB President’s Cup and will stage a five-team Twenty20 competition named Bangabandhu Twenty20 Cup starting from November 24. -new age
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