Nidahas Trophy : BCB and SLC not concerned with BCCI’s decision of resting star players

02/27/2018

BCB and the SLC have asserted that they are not concerned with BCCI’s decision of resting star players like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni for the Nidahas Trophy. The Tri-series, which is scheduled to start from March 6 in Colombo, will mark the 70th anniversary of Sri Lanka's independence.

All the excitement that the announcement of Nidahas Trophy, which will have India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh locking horns with each other, had garnered, fizzled out as soon as India announced the team for the tri-series T20 tournament. After a gruelling tour of South Africa, BCCI has decided to rest its star players like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya. They would field a much younger and inexperienced squad for the campaign.

However, India’s team selection did not concern the Sri Lanka Cricket chief Thilanga Sumathipala, who has been of the opinion that it would not affect the competition as cricket has never been an individual sport.

"Sri Lanka is playing against India and not with the individual players. We have also kept Angelo Mathews, Kusal Perera, Asela Gunaratne, Lasith Malinga away," " said Sumathipala, reported Deccan Chronicle.

Despite some star players of all the three teams being sidelined with injuries, Sumathipala believes that the tournament will not lose its gloss. Bangladesh announced a squad that will be led by Shakib Al Hasan, who is expected to miss the opening two games of the tournament due to injury. After failing to make Mashrafe Mortaza come out of retirement for the T20 tournament, Bangladesh Cricket Board announced an under-strength 15-man squad which will be under the interim head coach Courtney Walsh.

"Our team has no Mortaza. He has not been considered because he showed no interest in spite of the request by the BCB chief," the source said exclusively.

"The team has no bunch of new players. Our team is struggling in T-20s and therefore relatively experienced players are picked," he concluded.