During Training Only One Allowed At A Time At Stadium:
Only one player is allowed to train inside the stadium at a time, with only one trainer, both maintaining a fair distance. Separate benches, bottles of water and toilets for them. There are no groundsmen or board officials allowed inside the ground. A second player can only join the field once the first player is qualified.
Those are the latest rules to be observed at the usual bustling Shere Bangla National Stadium, when the BCB opened its facilities on Sunday, for the first time since March. The same rules shall be extended to the other facilities in Sylhet, Khulna, and Chattogram.
Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Shafiul Islam had been trained in Dhaka while Khaled Ahmed, a fast bowler, and Nasum Ahmed, a left-winger, had been trained in Sylhet. It was Nurul Hasan and Mahedi Hasan in Khulna, while the rain did not allow Nayeem Hasan to train in Chattogram. Imrul Kayes is also going to train in Dhaka on Monday. These nine cricketers were volunteering to train. Rahim had also been training on another ground on the outskirts of Dhaka last week.
The BCB implements other normal protocols. Players and trainers had their temperatures checked, and hand sanitizers and sprays were readily available. When Rahim and Mithun hit the bowling machine in the indoor courts, they didn’t pick up the balls. The individual who fed the ball into the bowling machine collected all the balls at the end of the round. When the preparation was done, the player left the field and just half an hour later the second player entered the stadium.
Akram Khan, chairman of the BCB cricket operations, said they had requests from players to resume training in May, but the board had discouraged any outside training due to the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in Bangladesh.
“We’ve had requests from players to practice since Eid last [May], but we haven’t supported them,” Akram said. “The situation wasn’t good, and neither is it all right now. But since May, we’ve had the ground and training facilities ready, so this time we decided to open them to players. As long as the situation of the pandemic remains the same, this is how the training will be arranged. Obviously, if it improves, we’ll be back in full training immediately.
Khan also said that the board had no problems with cricketers who had decided to stay home. “We ‘re all right with them staying at home. If any of them wants to join the training, we ‘re going to arrange a schedule for them,” he said.
Most Bangladeshi cricketers have been doing some kind of physical training at home. Last month, the BCB sent preparation equipment to most centrally contracted cricketers. Wicketkeeper Nurul set up a pitch in front of his home, while Khaled was running almost every day during the pandemic.
On Sunday, cricketers either sprinted, in some cases 20 of 100m, while others ran for about 40 minutes at a distance of 4.5km. The current schedule is applicable for a week prior to the Eid-al-Azha break.
Bangladesh has had several series postponed due to the pandemic, including a three-game test series in Sri Lanka scheduled for July. The two-test series against New Zealand at home, expected to take place in August, has also been postponed, as is the Asia Cup. With the T20 World Cup still in question, the next largest source of revenue for the BCB in 2020 remains the Bangladesh Premier League, scheduled for the end of the year.
The Board is currently considering the possibility of resuming the Dhaka Premier League, a one-day domestic competition, in September, as hundreds of non-contracted cricketers are struggling financially.
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