Bangladesh’s pending Test series against Sri Lanka could be rescheduled in October, the month when Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) is being hosted in UAE. But the rescheduling of the series will have little impact on the IPL season as none of the Bangladesh cricketers have been picked by the league franchises this season.
Even in regard to the Sri Lankan cricketers, only two from the island nation are in the IPL squads and both should be relieved by Sri Lanka cricket as they are not part of the Test teams. Mumbai Indians has Lasith Malinga in their squad and all-rounder Isuru Udana is part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team. Both should not face any challenge getting a no objection certificate from SLC to play in IPL 2020.
Originally, Sri Lanka was scheduled to host Bangladesh in July for a three Test series but due to Covid19 the series will be now pushed to October. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury is looking to “work around with our schedule” after the postponement of the T20 World Cup.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the pending three-match Test series between Bangladesh and hosts Sri Lanka could be rescheduled to October, if talks between the BCB and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) come to fruition.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup which was scheduled to take place in Australia from October 18 to November 15 this year.
Bangladesh will tour Sri Lanka for their first three-match red-ball series in six years which is also a part of the ongoing ICC Test Championship. The series was originally scheduled to take place in July-August but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, both the board had decided to postponed the series.
But the announcement of deferring the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 to 2021, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka agreed to find a new window to host the series.
“The ICC's announcement of the three major tournaments has provided what window we can work with, as now we know that the tournament dates are fixed, we can work around with our schedule,” Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the chief executive officer of BCB, told ESPNcricinfo.
Along with the national team, BCB is planning to send a High-performance (HP) team to Sri Lanka. The unit was scheduled to start their training in March. But the Coronavirus situation put a long gap on their way.
“We were supposed to start training in March. But the pandemic forced us to stay away from cricket for a long time. We now have to figure out how we can start training in Dhaka,” Naimur Rahman, the chairman of HP, told the media on Wednesday.
“After sorting out how we start training in Bangladesh, we will discuss the Sri Lanka tour. We may have to stay longer in Sri Lanka to ensure a long training camp,” Naimur added.
Along with Sri Lanka tour, Bangladesh’s series against Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland have also been postponed due to the Coronavirus. The BCB CEO told media that they are working to sort out different windows for this series in coming months.
(Indiesport, UNB)
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