Bangladesh say ‘No’ to Sri Lanka series after 14-day Quarantine compulsion
BCB president Nazmul Hasan has stated that Bangladesh won't travel Sri Lanka for the three-match Test series if the 14-day quarantine rule is forced on them. Earlier, the Bangladesh Cricket Board had sought a seven-day quarantine so as to allow their players to get an additional week of practice.
Bangladesh have been very clear in their undertaking regarding the tour and stated that they would allow travel if the Quarantine regulations are cleared but Sri Lanka Cricket failed to get permission for a reduced period from the government.
Cricbuzz reported that the proposed 14-day quarantine will end on October 12 and Bangladesh will get to train for five days before playing their three-day practice match against Sri Lanka A from October 18-20. The first Test is scheduled to begin on October 23. But Bangladesh Cricket Board is not on board with the idea.
Meanwhile, Nazmul Hasan held an emergency meeting and later announced that BCB have informed the Asian neighbour about their apprehension regarding the bio-safety plan. The biosafety plan submitted to them was different to what was briefed previously. Hasan is also angry about the fact that SLC will not provide any net bowlers to them, yet haven’t allowed them to carry any extra bowlers with them as well.
"A lot of terms are new to us. Many countries have seven-day quarantines but they are being allowed to practice. At some places teams are being allowed to get to the field after three-day quarantine," Nazmul said.
"But the terms given by SLC yesterday says none of our team members will be allowed to go out even from the room for 14-days. Not even to have food. We feel there is some reason behind this. We feel that maybe they are dealing with a tough situation with Covid-19 which we don't know about. They are playing domestic there but when it comes to us they are trying to impose these restrictions.
"We will have our team in Dambulla and not in Colombo despite that they are not allowing our team members to get out of the room. These terms are surprising. Speaking of the practice facilities they will not provide even the net bowlers and at the same time they are not allowing us to carry any. This is not a child's play, this is the ICC Test championship. There is a big difference the way we are thinking," he said.
BCB is expecting a reply from the Sri Lanka Cricket by Tuesday and if the board doesn’t reply by then, then the former will have their own plan. He also added that it is not possible to play Test Championship with the terms they have sent as a proposal.
"We have informed them that there is no similarity between the way it is being thought of and the reality. It is not possible to play Test championship series under the terms they are trying to set. We are expecting to hear back from them tomorrow. We have one simple message to them, the terms they are trying to impose are historically unique. It is not possible to play Test championship under such terms. If they invite us for further discussion then we will see where it heads to.
"We will not wait long for them to reply. We have decided that it is not possible for us this way and we have already started planning on things that need to be to get our cricketers back to the field. If they reply soon it's fine or else we will have our own set of plans and we will not get back from that.”