No movement on SL tour front
There have been a lot of confusion over Bangladesh's upcoming tour of Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankan Covid-19 task force are yet to provide the revised health protocol to Sri Lanka Cricket.
The cloud over the tour became darker after Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva stated that if the Bangladesh Cricket Board are not willing to abide by the protocols set by the country's Covid-19 task force, the tour will be called off and rescheduled.
"Whatever the feedback which we would get from the Covid task force, will be shared with the Bangladesh Cricket Board. And once we get the response, if they [BCB] are not prepared to abide by those guidelines given by the task force, then we would be compelled to call off the tour and reschedule the tour during the same cycle maybe for next year or the following year," de Silva said during an interview to ThePapare.com on Thursday.
Earlier, BCB President Nazmul Hassan said that it would not be possible for Bangladesh to follow the mandatory 14-day strict quarantine and SLC officials have since had a series of meetings with Sri Lankan government officials in an effort to relax the protocol. But it seemed the Sri Lankan government officials and the task force were unwilling to relax the quarantine period.
While nothing definite could be known about whether the tour will go ahead or not, it is by now almost certain that there will a delay as the Tigers were scheduled to travel to the island nation on September 27. During the tour Bangladesh were scheduled to play three Tests under the ICC Test championship.
According to BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury the board is yet to receive the revised health protocol, adding that the board will assess the protocols before making the final call.
"Look we are still in the same state as before and what the SLC CEO had said is that they are yet to receive the revised health protocol and after getting that they will send that to us. After receiving that the BCB will assess that and then decide whether we will tour or not. But first, we need to receive the health protocol which we are still expecting from the SLC," Nizamuddin told The Daily Star.
The BCB is expecting to receive the health protocol from the SLC soon but Nizamuddin also added that the main priority for the BCB would be to send a well-prepared team for the tour.
"Our main priority will be to send a well-prepared team as we cannot send a team not fully prepared to play a series and the final call over the tour will be taken by the BCB," he added.
The BCB has already started a residential camp for its 27-member preliminary squad by creating a bio-secure bubble with frequent coronavirus testing. As the uncertainty continues, many cricketers want domestic cricket to resume, with the Dhaka Premier League having been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March.
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