BCB plans U-19 tri-nation tournament
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is planning to organise a tri-nation tournament for the preparation of the Bangladesh Under-19 Cricket Team ahead of the upcoming ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup.
The next edition of the flagship event for the youth will be hosted by Bangladesh, scheduled to be held from January 22 to February 14 with the participation of the 16 teams.
ICCs 10-full members will be automatically qualified for the 11th version of the mega event. Other five additional teams will qualify through the different regional tournaments. The sixteenth spot in Bangladesh will go to the best of the second-place finishers from the regions, who will play in a separate repechage event.
Bangladesh meanwhile played three home and away series as part of preparation for the forthcoming World Cup. They clinched these series in dominating manner this year.
In January, the junior Tigers toured Sri Lanka and thrashed them by 3-2. Thereafter, they played against defending champions South Africa at their home yard and triumphed the series by 6-1. And then, they traveled to South Africa on June and won the seven-match youth ODI series by 5-2.
We are sketching out a plan to arrange a tri-nation tournament for the preparation of the Under-19 in the last week of October. Zimbabwe have already agreed to play with us and some more countries are also showed their keen interest. But we are yet to finalise the third team of the tournament, said Nazmul Abedin Fahim, national manager of BCB Game Development.
Even we are also planning to host two more bilateral short series prior to the U-19 World Cup. Weve already finalised a series, which will be played with Sri Lanka on January. Weve also talked with India to arrange a series, Fahim told The Independent yesterday.
About change in the current squad, the national manager of BCB Game Development said that there is less possibility to bring any change in the present squad.
The current squad members have been performing together since last one year. They have already wrapped up three straight youth series. So, there is no more possibility to change in the squad at the moment if any exceptional thing is not happened, the national manager said in response to a query.
The team will start their training camp in the first week of August under the guideline of the head coach Mizanur Rahman Babul.
It is known from the BCB insiders that the fixtures and venues for the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup will be finalised within the next one or two months after the completion of the qualifying round that were going on at different regions.
But Abdul Baten, national manager of BCB Ground and Facility, said that the activities in designated venue grounds for the World Cup will kick-off from October.
