The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is still hopeful of hosting Bangladesh for the test series, despite neighbor cricket board’s reservations on following the 14-day Covid-19 quarantine guidelines, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Sri Lanka Cricket had sent a letter to the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Sunday stating that the tourists will have to serve a 14-day quarantine period during which the players can not step out of their rooms for meals.
On Monday, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan Papon said that the board will inform SLC that it will not be possible for Bangladesh to compete in the Test championship without the basic preparation.
However, the SLC is still hopeful of going ahead with the tour, after country’s Sports Namal Rajapaksa has instructed board to look into issues raised by the BCB.
“As we all know the #COVID19 pandemic is still at large globally, prevention measures are a high priority. However, given the significance of #cricket in the region, I have asked @OfficialSLC to consult the covid task force and reconsider the @BCBtigers matter.” Namal tweeted yesterday.
“Till now, we were discussing the matter with health ministry officials. However, now we have been told from the top to discuss with Covid-19 task force. Today itself we have fixed an appointment with the task force members and the home series against Bangladesh is still very much on” a top SLC official told Cricket Age.
Bangladesh were scheduled to leave for Colombo on September 27, with the first Test slated to begin on October 23.
In last few weeks, the SLC has successfully resumed domestic cricket and the national players have also returned to training. Even then, due to the strict guidelines, the board is unable to kick start International Cricket. So far, cricket tours by England, South Africa and India to the island have been postponed due to COVID-19. Bangladesh were set to tour in July but the series was pushed back to October. Sri Lanka was also scheduled to host the Asia Cup this year, but due to the tussle between India and Pakistan, that too has been indefinitely postponed.
