Will Bangladesh tour end up like the LPL?

A Bangladesh cricketer attends an individual training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on 19 July, after a three-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic

• SLC waits for guidelines from Health Ministry

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The much looked-forward-to Lanka Premier League (LPL) that was scheduled to commence on 28 August had to be postponed, when it ran into a wall with the Ministry of Heath strictly adhering to their 14-day quarantine period when Sri Lanka Cricket had wanted a reduction in the number of days.

Bangladesh’s cricket tour of Sri Lanka, which is due to begin sometime next month, is also confronted with a similar issue with regard to the quarantine period.

The tour, which consists of a series of three Tests which are part of the World Test Championship, does not commence until October, but Bangladesh, who are unable to train together in their own country because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are planning to come well ahead and commence their training in Sri Lanka.

“Bangladesh wants to come in advance and they will want to go through the quarantine period for about 5-6 days and after that, at least start training,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva.

“As long as they could train during the quarantine period, then we should be okay. That is something which we might have to get the clearance from the Health Ministry whether that would be possible,” he said.

“Bangladesh is coming at their own cost to carry out the training, so if they are to stay for another 14 additional days, the cost would be massive. Most of the Cricket Boards today are finding it difficult to manage financially.”  

Speaking further, De Silva said, “We also need to share the numbers with the Health Ministry how many people would come with the squad. Bangladesh wants to send their Development Squad as well. Altogether there might be the Development plus the National team squads and the Development tour would also happen at the same time. We are expecting around 60-65 people that includes players and support staff.”

De Silva said that they were waiting for the Health Ministry to give them a date to meet up.   “We want to get some guidelines on how many days of quarantine the teams will have to go through. If any of the players is tested positive, what would be the process which needs to be carried out, and all that, has to be discussed in detail. We also have to do a document and we need to get a document from them where we can share it with the relevant people. Until it is done, Bangladesh will not finalise the tour,” said De Silva.

“Tentatively we had discussions when the tour would take place and all that, we are waiting for the health authorities for clearance so that we can share it and take it forward from there.”

From the Government’s administrative point of view, there are around 72 plus sporting disciplines in the country, and some of those are contact sports. Any guideline that is issued by the Health Ministry has to be uniform and fair by everybody. But the Government is simply not in a position to give selective guidelines for selective sports. It cannot be favourable towards some sports and not the others. There would be huge fallout from the other sports.  All the challenges of livelihood are common to everybody in the circuit, not only to Sri Lanka Cricket. That’s how any responsible Government would look at it.