BSP-14 Sri Lanka Sports Minister asks SLC to reconsider terms of Tigers tour

273

ZCZC

BSP-14

CRICKET-SL-SPORTS-MINISTER

Sri Lanka Sports Minister asks SLC to reconsider terms of Tigers tour

DHAKA, Sept 14, 2020 (BSS)—Sri Lanka’s Cabinet Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Namal Rajapaksa asked Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to reconsider the matter of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

The BCB on Monday refused to accept the terms and conditions set by the Sri Lanka Cricket. BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon termed the terms and conditions as unique and said it is not possible to tour Sri Lanka under such ‘rare’ terms and conditions.

In the aspect of BCB president’s statement, Rajapaksa in a tweet asked his country’s board to review the matter.

“As we all know the Covid-19 pandemic is still at large globally, prevention measures are a high priority. However, given the significance of cricket in the region, I have asked SLC to consult the Covid-19 task force and reconsider the BCB’s matter,” Rajapaksa tweeted.

Where the problems lie is that the players would have to stay quarantine for 14 days and in this 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.

BSS/SMP/TAN/1912hrs