Bangladesh's Sri Lanka tour postponed
Photo - BCB , Roton Gomes
|| CF Correspondent ||
Sri Lankan cricket authorities on Wednesday announced to postpone next month’s series against Bangladesh citing that time has still not arrived for their players to take part in an international cricket series due to COVID – 19 pandemic.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were expected to play a three-match Test series in July as part of the ICC World Test Championship.
The series will be deferred to a mutually planned later date, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement.
The news came a day after Bangladesh postponed its home series against New Zealand in August.
Australia earlier postponed a planned series against Bangladesh in June for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citing lack of preparation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, BCB and SLC have decided to postpone Bangladesh's tour.
BCB has informed SLC that 'a conducive environment has still not arrived for the players to take part in an international cricket series.'
Earlier BCB cricket operations chairman Akram Khan had admitted the low probability of that series being played as per the original schedule.
"Yes we had spoken with some of the players and they did not show any interest [to tour during that point of time]" said Akram
"I think chances are very slim about the Sri Lanka tour commencing on a scheduled time frame," he said.
Earlier this week, Mashrafe Mortaza and former Bangladesh opener Nafees Iqbal had tested positive for Covid-19. Bangladesh has seen a huge spike in the number of cases recently, with more than 9.24 million people affected by the virus worldwide.
