Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operation chairman Akram Khan said Bangladesh’s July tour of Sri Lanka is unlikely to go ahead.
Akram told Cricbuzz, “Yes we had spoken with some of the players and they did not show any interest, and I think chances are very slim about the Sri Lanka tour commencing on the scheduled time frame.”
The officials of the Bangladesh board held a video conference with senior players, who cited the virus risk as the reason why they are unlikely to tour Sri Lanka in July. While Sri Lanka Cricket has been pushing for a revised schedule in September, and BCB has yet to commit.
Some cricketers of Sri Lanka have resumed training as a group while cricketers of Bangladesh are yet to have a camp. Akram said the team would only play international cricket after they’ve had ample preparation.
He pointed out during the interview, “Where Sri Lanka is thinking about playing cricket, we are still going to resume training on our own backyard and, more importantly, we can’t say when the condition will improve,”
According to the operation chairman, “We’re trying to find out who wants to train individually so that we can prepare the ground for them, but I’m not too sure if everyone wants to do it or it’s just a few cricketers’ wishes,”
He explained further the situation, “Without proper preparation, we can not go there because it’s a three-match Test series. The players are out of cricket for a long time so they will need at least 40 days of training with one-month skill training following a 10 days fitness camp after returning to cricket. So we can’t commit to anything on the Sri Lanka tour right away.”
