BCB confident of Bangabandhu T20 despite pushing it back by a week
Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board is confident of hosting the upcoming BangabandhuT20 successfully despite pushing it back for more than a week.
BCB initially planned to host the T20 tournament from mid November and its president Nazmul Hasan earlier announced November 15 as tentative date for the tournament opener.
However, BCB now have decided to take some more time to play the new five-team T20 tournament and working on to start within November 25.
BCB invited Expression of Interest (EOI) on October 27 from reputed business houses, companies, parties, agencies, consortiums and individuals for team’s sponsorship rights of the five participating teams of the tournament, scheduled in November-December 2020, with the deadline ending on November 1.
BCB looks ready to take up the challenge of bringing back cricket on a bigger scale after successfully completing the BCB President’s Cup, the first competitive cricket tournament, since the coronavirus pandemic, ending without trouble earlier.
BCB considered the three-team 50-over competition involving the top players of the country as a test-run before resuming domestic cricket on a larger scale as BCB is planning to bring cricket back to the field.
BCB now looks adamant to host the five-team T-20 tournament after successfully completing the President’s Cup under the new-normal environment that includes keeping the cricketers and the members of the team management under the bio-bubble by isolating them in a hotel during the entire tournament.
BCB had earlier announced that there will be no BPL, the country’s lone franchise-based T20 tournament, this year while they opted to launch the proposed domestic T20 competition as the second part of their resumption plan before bringing domestic cricket on a broader scale across the country.
BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said on Tuesday that they have got a good response from interested parties willing to take part in the competition and now eyeing to finalize everything in the coming week.
‘’You all know we have already given the advertisement seeking for sponsors for the upcoming Bangabandhu T20 tournament and we are hopeful to close this thing very soon. We have got a good response and we are yet to take the final decision and the interested sponsors will get the confirmation from the board,’’ Nizamuddin told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
‘’What we are trying is to prepare the schedule along with the grounds and other things and we are heading forward considering everything with an aim to start the tournament by November 22,’’ he said.
‘’I am not going to disclose the exact numbers but we will try to confirm the five sponsors and give the declaration,’’ he said adding that this tournament is by no means a replacement of BPL, that was postponed for this year due to pandemic.
‘’Look it’s a completely different tournament as you know we have taken a few steps keeping the bio-bubble situation and this is part of our plan. As you know this is the step for us to return to international cricket. Firstly, we opened the training facilities and then allowed the individual training which was followed by the small group training and later on the national team also practiced targeting the Sri Lanka tour. As the Sri Lanka tour didn’t take place, we arranged a three-team tournament and the five-team competition is part of the same plan and we are planning accordingly,’’ he said.
