Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka in doubt over coronavirus quarantine

Bangladesh’s tour of Sri Lanka for the ICC World Test Championship is in doubt after the Sri Lankan Cricket Board increased the period of the quarantine to 14 days. This has not gone down well with Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan, who has said that the terms and conditions are nowhere near to acceptable. Initially the Sri Lankan Cricket Board had said the Bangladesh team needed to be in quarantine for only seven days but with the coronavirus pandemic spreading, the quarantine period has been extended.

This has made the Bangladesh Cricket Board president very unhappy and he said, “We cannot play World Test Championships with these terms and conditions. Until their letter yesterday, both boards were having discussions along the lines of a seven-day quarantine. But now their terms and conditions are nowhere near those discussions, and neither are they anything close to what other countries hosting cricket in the pandemic are doing. There are three or seven-day quarantines in those places where the players can either train among themselves or use the gym.”

Further discrepancies

Pointing out further restrictions, Hassan said playing the World Test Championship series is not possible for them."Seeing that they started domestic cricket, we informed the SLC that we are coming with a big squad so that we can have our training camp there. But they will not allow us to train when our players have been inactive for seven months. They won`t even let us take net bowlers and neither are they going to provide us with any net bowlers. How can we play World Test Championship without any training? So it is not possible for us," he said.

However, in a tweet, Sri Lanka’s sports minister Namal Rajapaksa said: "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."

Bangladesh has been ravaged by the coronavirus while Sri Lanka has kept the pandemic in check. Both teams have not played any form of cricket since the start of the year, with England’s tour to Sri Lanka postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and Bangladesh’s series against Australia and New Zealand also postponed.