Bulk of Bangladesh U-19 cricketers to miss BPL
Sports Reporter
The bulk of the Bangladesh Under-19 Cricket Teams players will miss the new-look Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) third edition as they will be spending a very busy schedule at home and abroad playing a number of series.
BPL governing council primarily decided to keep a provision for the Under-19 players so that they all could play in the domestic Twenty20 league ahead of their ICC Under-19 World Cup 2016. Later the organisers changed their mind considering their home and away series engagement.
The youth team will play a four-match ODI home series against Zimbabwe, who are supposed to arrive in Dhaka on November 8. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has already prepared a draft schedule for the series keeping the dates of November 10, 12, 14 and 15 respectively.
All the matches of the series will be held in Chittagong and Coxs Bazar venues. But the fixture is yet to be finalised. It is heard that the date of the matches may be changed a bit.
Just after the end of the home series against Zimbabwe, the junior Tigers are set to fly for India on November 17 to play a tri-nation series with involving Afghanistan and the hosts India.
The series will be commenced from November 20 and will be concluded on November 29. Each team will play two matches of the series to be moved forward on the basis of double league system.
All the matches will be played at Kolkata but the exact ground is yet to be fixed.
Now the team is in a 10-day vacation following their three practice matches against Dhaka First Division Cricket Leagues team likes of Partex, Surjo Torun and a combined team at BKSP on October 10, 12 and 14 respectively.
Nazmul Abedin Fahim acknowledged the matter of the bi-lateral and tri-nation series and that they have arranged three home and away series prior to the World Cup.
Some players of the U-19 are playing in the NCL. The remaining are in vacation and will assemble on October 28. Theyll begin their practice for the upcoming Zimbabwe series and then tri-nation series in India. West Indies will come in January to play three ODIs before the World Cup, Fahim told The Independent.
