BCB likely to adopt rotation policy to cope with tight FTP

GBNews24 Desk//

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) might adopt a rotation policy for the players to cope with a busy schedule for 2023-2027 Future Tour Programme (FTP) cycle.

In these four years, Bangladesh will play 144 matches-34 Tests, 59 ODIs and 51 T20 Internationals, something which they never played in any previous cycle.

West Indies with 146 matches in four years are the only team to play more matches than Bangladesh.

The busy International schedule had already taken a huge toll on the players’ body with England star Ben Stokes being the latest victim.

Stokes, the Test captain of England had already retired from ODI cricket to give his body some rest.

While Bangladesh are not used to play such a huge number of matches more often, most of the players also have injury concerns, for which, the experts believe that it will be tough for the Tigers to cope with.

For some years now the big teams emphasized on split teams for three formats of the cricket and also rotated players to give them some rest from the busy schedule. In fact, the big teams don’t allow their crucial players to play less important matches and thereby they are managing players’ interest.

But Bangladesh are yet to create this culture and indeed they couldn’t afford to have such luxury. And even if they could afford, they often looked reluctant to rest senior players. For example, Bangladesh are sending a full strength team in Zimbabwe, when experts believe that even a second string Bangladesh could play well there given Zimbabwe’s strength.

Bangladesh had chance to test their bench strength in the last ODI match against West Indies of late since the series was not the part of the ICC ODI Super League and also Bangladesh had already won the series. But the team management was reluctant.

However BCB CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury hinted that in the wake of the situation, they might take a decision of rotation policy, scrutinizing all ins and outs.

“Not only the cricketers, but also there will be pressure on the team management (to deal with such a busy schedule),” he said on Thursday, BSS reports.