BCB expects Australia to tour Bangladesh as scheduled
It wants to play top ranked Test teams on a regular basis
Sports Reporter
The ACA yesterday cancelled Australia A teams tour to South Africa following their loggerheads between Cricket Australia and its players. It looks the decision may lead to Australia senior team to boycott Bangladesh tour next month
Bangladesh Cricket Board CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury however revealed that they are yet to get a decision on what they will do if Australia skip the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh.
Its too early to make comment on this issue. There is still one and half months left. Their security team is due to come to observe the situation in the last of this month. However at this stage, we are not in a position to comment more on that.
The Australian squad is due to arrive in Bangladesh on August 18 ahead of a warm-up fixture in Fatullah before Tests in Dhaka and Chittagong. Australian players are due to meet in the Northern Territory for a training camp before their departure. Australia have only played two Test series against Bangladesh, having not played the Tigers in a Test series away since 2006. A scheduled 2015 series was cancelled because of security fears.
But BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said it was all systems go for the tour from their perspective. As far as we are concerned, we have been preparing for the series, our players are starting their camp very soon, he told Fairfax Media. Its a problem between Cricket Australia and the players, an internal issue. Our preparations will go on, and we expect the series to go ahead.
The CEO said the International Cricket Council has moved closer towards providing Test cricket with a meaningful structure and greater context by taking an initiative of introducing a new league in both formats, Bangladesh took a policy of observing the ins and outs of the scheme closely.
In hindsight, Bangladesh basically would like to get more Test matches against the top ranked team on a regular basis. If the plan goes according to Bangladeshs wish, they would have no reservation to support the plan, initiated by the ICC CEC.
In February this year, ICC has taken a decision of a nine-team Test championship to run from 2019 and feature a final every two years and to create a 13-team league for one-day internationals that would be played over a three-year period and decide places for a World Cup staged in the fourth year. A concrete decision on this will be taken in next October.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (CEO) Nizamuddin Chowdhury said they are not in a position to comment on the structure before the plan is put on the table in next October. But he made it clear that the BCB wants more Test matches against top ranked side regularly what they havent still get despite achieving the Test status in 2000.
There were several proposals which were discussed in the ICC meeting. Lastly a structure was made. And every team basically wants to play against top ranked side, Chowdhury told the reporters yesterday.
The ICC actually has been working to ensure that each team will get similar advantage and play against the top ranked side regularly.
From what I have seen, in the system, each team will play against each other. How it will bring good for us, its a matter of discussion. We will be able to make comment on this after it is put on the table. So we are waiting at the moment.
Under the proposal it is understood the top nine Test nations would play four series at home and four away over a two-year period, with the league table leading into a final that would decide the outright Test champions. While countries would only meet once in the league either home or away the fixtures would then be reversed next time around.
Three teamsZimbabwe and new Test nations Ireland and Afghanistan will be out of system for the time being. Should these three nations prove their strength over time, the Test championship could then be either expanded or feature new teams.
Under the system of league, which would see teams play a minimum of 12 matches per year but with no upper limit, the top seven teams would go into the World Cup outright alongside the hosts, with the remainder entering a qualifying competition that includes more associate nations and would have two teams going through.
Providing a similar structure for Twenty20 international cricket is also being looked into, however plans are less developed at this stage.
For Bangladesh, what is headache that how they would be gainer if this is introduced in the next October.
We have been ensured that we will get chance to play cricket regularly. Earlier you saw, there were times when there was no cricket in Bangladesh. There was huge gap. If the new system is adopted, we came to know that we will have no gap. We also want a similar system but we need to get a guarantee that well play cricket against all teams and against top ranked teams at regular basis.
Some Bangladeshi players like Sabbir Rahman and others are due to play in Afghanistan but Chowdhury said they didnt get such sort of proposal still.
