BCB not interested to play int’l cricket before WI series
Pic: Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board official said on Monday that they are not thinking of any international cricket before the home series against West Indies, scheduled in January.
West Indies are expected to play three Tests and as many ODI’s along with three Twenty20 internationals during their visit in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Cricket Board were thinking to resume their cricketing activities with the proposed three-match Test series against Sri Lanka that was scheduled at their own backyard from this October.
However, the series was postponed as BCB were reluctant to abide 14-day quarantine that was provided by SLC as part of their health guide line.
Despite the postponement of the series BCB is still continuing with their 27-member preliminary camp and currently playing second two-day intra squad match.
The continuation of the camp only raise question whether BCB is eyeing to play any international cricket match ahead of the scheduled home series against West Indies.
BCB cricket operation chairman Akram Khan told Daily Sun on Monday that they are not thinking of hosting any international matches as all their focus is not into hosting the domestic tournament as he feels that is the only pathway to host international matches in the coming days.
‘’We are not thinking of hosting any international match before the home series against West Indies while we decided to skip the invitation of Ireland to play a T20 tournament as we want to concentrate on beginning the domestic season,’’ Akram said when his attention was drawn regarding trying to bring Afghanistan as they have a window after their one-off Test series against Australia was postponed that was scheduled in November.
Akram said their initial plan is to host the three-team 50-over tournament that will take place from October 11.
‘’Look we want to start the 50-over tournament as we want to gain confidence that we can host competitive cricket matches in new normal environment,’’ said Akram.
‘’Lot of things will be involved in hosting the tournament and it is our biggest challenge to make sure that this three team tournament ends up successfully,’’ he said.
‘’If we can do it later we will try to arrange a Corporate League T20 but that is still in the primary stage so we cannot speak about it detail but if that is not possible than we will try to arrange something else but we will certainly make sure that we are playing some domestic cricket competition ,’’ he said.
‘’If we can successfully host the tournament certainly the tourist will be confident to come and play here,’’ he said.
The three-team tournament is expected to be a day night affair and it will be played with cricketers from national team and High Performance Unit splitting in three groups.
Since March there has been no competitive cricket in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dhaka Premier League, the country's traditional 50-over club tournament that is considered to be the major source of income for majority of cricketers, came to an abrupt halt earlier this year.
