BPL in focus after debacle
The same old autopsy has been going on following the Bangladesh cricket team’s ignominious performance in the just-concluded two-match Test series on the much-desired tour of India. If Bangladesh cricket’s past trends are anything to go by, then the gloom will not persist for long, especially as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday announced the full fixtures of the Bangabandhu BPL T20.
Four players, including Test captain Mominul Haque and Mahmudullah Riyad returned home on Sunday and the rest are expected to return by tomorrow and there is little doubt that the focus will now shift to the seventh edition of the BPL. The seven participating teams -- Dhaka Platoon, Khulna Tigers, Rajshahi Royals, Rangpur Rangers, Sylhet Thunder, Cumilla Warriors and Chattogram Challengers -- have already formed their squads through a players’ draft on November 17.
The BPL will start from December 11 with Chattogram Challengers taking on Sylhet Thunder and Cumilla Warriors squaring off against Rangpur Rangers on the opening day at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. The final is scheduled to take place at the same venue on January 17 next year. The tournament will take place in three cities -- Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet.
With January 18 being allotted as a reserve day for the final, the national team’s departure for Pakistan -- the Tigers’ next international assignment before a home series against Zimbabwe in March -- may be delayed by one or two days if the BCB get a security clearance for the two-Test and three-T20I series in Pakistan.
“Bangladesh are scheduled to go to Pakistan on January 18 but everything will depend on the security clearance. Before our women’s team’s visit to Pakistan, a security team had visited the country to assess everything and one of our age-group teams also visited Pakistan recently. But we are yet to get a clearance about the national team,” BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury told The Daily Star yesterday.
“There is our Bangladesh High Commission… a government security team has already visited Pakistan, the International Cricket Council (ICC) also makes an independent assessment, so when we get the green signal from all of them, we will go ahead with the tour,” he added.
BCB president Nazmul Hassan however was hopeful about the tour taking place. “As two of our teams recently visited Pakistan, you can say we will get the clearance if any abnormal situation does not arise in the meantime. But we have to wait for the official clearance report,” Hassan told reporters while talking about Bangladesh’s Test series debacle in India, regarding which he promised to disclose their short and long-term plans for improvement in Test cricket.
Recently Sri Lanka, without their main players, toured Pakistan for a bilateral series for the first time in a decade since the 2009 attack on the team bus in Lahore, although it was only for limited-overs cricket. Some sources have suggested that Bangladesh could also confirm their tour of Pakistan only for the three T20Is as players and officials were not eager to stay there for a prolonged period.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo and other foreign coaching staff have gone for vacation following the India series and according to the BCB CEO they will return during the middle of the BPL T20.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Bangabandhu BPL will get underway from December 11 with Chattogram Challengers taking on Sylhet Thunder and Cumilla Warriors locking horns with Rangpur Rangers on the opening day in Mirpur. The final will be held at the same venue on January 17, 2020.
The reserve day for the final is January 18, the same day that Bangladesh are scheduled to go to Pakistan on January 18 for a Test and T20I tour. The tour will only go ahead if the BCB gets a security clearance to tour Pakistan.
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