England bypass warm-ups to trim tour duration

GBNEWS24DESK//

Although the England cricket team were set to play two warm-up games in Sylhet ahead of their two white-ball series in March against hosts Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) informed that England have decided to shorten the tour duration by skipping practice matches.

“They [England] were satisfied with the venues. We have hosted ICC and ACC events before and we have the facilities to successfully host England. We have a few plans and visiting teams also have a few requirements, and we consider everything before selecting the venues. We had a practice-match scheduled which we arranged in Sylhet but ultimately England limited their tour to official matches only so it won’t happen this time around,” BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury told the media yesterday.

As per initial itinerary, England were to play practice matches on February 24 and February 26. Instead, however, England will now arrive on February 24. The BCB CEO informed that the board is planning accordingly.

The first two of the three-match ODI series are scheduled to take place at Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on March 1 and March 3 before Chattogram’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium hosts the final ODI on March 6. Chattogram will then feature the first two T20Is on March 9 and 12 before the final T20I takes place at Dhaka on March 14.

Sylhet International Cricket Stadium is ready for international action but over the past few years the BCB has not scheduled international fixtures regularly at the ground, leading to disappointment from Sylhet-based organisers.

“We are hosting Ireland in Sylhet, so this is not a fact that we are not using that venue. We want to use every venue at different times,” he said.

Sylhet’s picturesque stadium is currently hosting the BPL and the accommodation arrangement is in place for international teams. Organisers in Sylhet believe the ground is being ignored as an international venue despite having key facilities. It remains to be seen whether important series are hosted in future at the venue.

The national team, meanwhile, is currently without a head coach and Chandika Hathurusingha’s name had surfaced in the media as the leading candidate to take on the role. The BCB CEO, however, did not want to discuss any names at the given moment but hoped that before the England series begins, they will be able to secure the coaching appointments.

“We never mentioned any specific names and, in fact, we can’t do that as well. We remain hopeful of filling the coaching position before the England series,” the BCB CEO added.

This will be England’s first tour of Bangladesh since 2016, where they drew the two-Test series 1-1 and won the ODI series 2-1.