West Indies Are Due To Visit Bangladesh For Two Tests And Three ODIs:
A detailed Covid-19 management plan was submitted by the Bangladesh Cricket Board to its West Indian counterpart for approval ahead of the upcoming home series in January, taking initial steps towards the country’s resumption of international cricket.
For two tests and three ODIs, West Indies are due to visit as BCB looks to reschedule a slew of international series that have been postponed due to the current situation with Covid-19. As the pandemic situation escalated across the world, Bangladesh had to cancel their tour of Pakistan in March and then their white-ball tour of Ireland in May. That followed the postponement of the tour of Sri Lanka. Bangladesh’s two-match test series was also postponed against Australia and New Zealand respectively.
Bangladesh also tried to reschedule Sri Lanka’s tour in October, but that went in vain as the tourists were not prepared to accept the Lankans’ proposed 14-day quarantine.
On Saturday, BCB cricket operations chairman Akram Khan confirmed, “We have submitted our Covid-19 management plan to the West Indies and are waiting to know if they are okay with it or have any suggestions regarding our proposal.” “We will send it to our government approval ministry after receiving their (WICB) input and that would allow us to resume international cricket after a long gap … which has proved very costly for us considering we missed the opportunity to play a lot of test matches in 2020,” he said.
After the postponement of the Sri Lanka tour, BCB are desperately trying to resume cricket in the country and as a result introduced the BCB President’s Cup, three-team 50-over tournament played by national team cricketers, High Performance team and Under 19 set-ups. BCB decided to launch the Bangabandhu T20 Cup beginning in the third week of November following the success of the tournament, and the success of the bio-bubble they build would go a long way in convincing foreign teams to come to Bangladesh.
Before planning their own ‘bio-bubble strategy’ for the upcoming home series against the West Indies, BCB officials are busy researching all possible bio-bubble models. To date, the BCB has assessed the Indian Premier League (IPL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and Big Bash bio-bubble proposals, along with plans by England and Pakistan.
The BCB is seeking to reduce and reduce the regular 14-day quarantine to seven days so that visitors can start planning without much delay. The tourists will have to offer a corona test upon arrival, according to the schedule, and if they are found to be negative, they will be able to start their training as soon as possible.
“You have already seen that we have hosted the three-team tournament and now we plan to have a five-team tournament that will be followed by an international series according to the ICC FTP [Future Tour Program]. We are scheduled to host [next January] West Indies,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told the media at the Sher-e – Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday.
“We are in daily communication with the West Indies Cricket Board and both boards will discuss and take a call (on the management plan for Covid-19),” Nizam added.
