ZCZC
BSP-08
CRICKET-PAPON-SL-TOUR-LEAD
No Sri Lanka tour under such ‘rare’ terms and conditions: Papon
DHAKA, Sept 14, 2020 (BSS)—The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to tour Sri Lanka for the upcoming three-match Test series, which was the part of ICC World Test Championship, by stating that the terms and conditions set by hosts is simply impossible to accept.
The decision was taken on Monday in a meeting by the board of directors and other high-ups. The BCB had already informed the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) about their decision.
But BCB President Nazmul Hassan Papon stated that the terms and conditions set by the SLC are rare and that it is not possible to tour if Sri Lanka stick by those terms and conditions.
Where the problems lie is that the players would have to stay quarantine for 14 days and in the period, they would have to strictly confine them into the hotel room. If the players quarantine themselves for 14 days, it would be difficult for them to take preparation for the series, considering that the Bangladeshi cricketers have been out of the cricket since the outbreak of COVID-19.
BCB was initially informed that they will require a seven-day quarantine upon reaching the Island on September 27 and that they could step on the field from the next day to prepare for the series scheduled to start on October 23.
The new rules of SLC also saw that the team should not be more than of 30 members including the coaching staff. Restriction over number of members in the team meant BCB’s plan of making its high-performance unit tour Sri Lanka alongside the national team was put in jeopardy.
“A lot of terms are new to us,” BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon said while addressing the media following the meeting with directors today.
“I have talked to the countries where cricket is back. Most of them have seven-day quarantine but the touring teams there are allowed to practice. At some places teams are being allowed to get to the field after three-day quarantine. But the terms and conditions given by SLC yesterday [Sunday] says none of our team members will be allowed to go out even from the room for 14-days. Not even to have a food.”
He went on say: “I don’t know what the reason is but we feel there is some reason behind this. I knew Sri Lanka is one of the countries where COVID-19 problem was contained successfully and therefore, we agreed to tour there. Now we feel that may be they are dealing a tough situation with COVID-19 which we don’t know about. They are playing domestic cricket there but when it came to us they are trying to impose these restrictions,” said Nazmul while taking to the media following the meeting on Monday at SBNS.
The BCB President also disclosed other issues of the terms and conditions given by Sri Lanka, which he said, is simply hard to accept.
“We will have our team initially in Dambula and not in Colombo. Despite that they are not allowing our team members to get out from the room. These terms are surprising. Speaking of the practice facilities they will not provide even the net bowlers and at the same time they are not allowing us to carry any. This is not child’s game, this is ICC Test championship. There is a big difference the way we are thinking,” the BCB boss added.
“Those sorts of terms and conditions are rare. It is not possible to play Test Championship under those conditions,” he remarked.
As per the tentative schedule Bangladesh were set to play the first two Tests of the series in Kandy followed by the third at Colombo. However BCB doesn’t think about the replacement of the series if it is finally cancelled.
“The Lankan board is informed about our version. Hopefully we’ll get a reply very soon. We have not thought of a replacement to this series yet. One thing we want to do is get cricket back to the field. Not sure if we will have any international team playing with us but we have ambition to start domestic cricket soon. It is yet to be planned but we will surely have cricket back soon. The coaching staff will stay back; the cricketers are not playing for a long time now so we will plan something,” Papon concluded.
BSS/SMP/TAN/1740hrs