Bangladesh to play T20 in T&T for Independence

A Bangladesh team has been invited to Trinidad and Tobago for a tournament commemorating the island’s Independence Day in August. The winners will get $20,000 and the organisers will bear all expenses. According to a story on Cricinfo, the Bangladesh Cricket Association is keen on accepting the invitation despite a fair degree on confusion within the Association at the moment. Bangladesh’s proposed tour of Zimbabwe in August has been delayed but there’s confusion over the length of the delay.  Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) confirmed the change was due to the relaying of pitches in both their main venues, Harare and Bulawayo. Zimbabwe wanted to postpone the tour to October but the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) didn’t agree to it because it clashed with the domestic season. 

 

It is understood that the BCB wants its star players to be available for the newly formed National Cricket League. “They (Zimbabwe) have informed us that both their grounds are not prepared so it won’t be possible in August,” Enayet Hossain Siraj, the BCB’s chairman of the cricket operations committee, told the Daily Star. “They proposed for the tour in October but it won’t be possible because we will have our domestic season at the time. So we agree to hold it in April 2013.” However, Zimbabwe are yet to confirm if 

the series will indeed take place next year. “We have requested (the BCB) that the series be moved to October from August,” Ozias Bvute, ZC’s managing director, told ESPNcricinfo.  “This is because we want to work on both our wickets and squares in Harare and Bulawayo where it has been very flat over the last few years so we want to make it livelier. “We were supposed to do this work earlier but because South Africa are visiting for five T20s in June, we can only do it later.”

 

Bangladesh were supposed to play two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 during the tour. In the coming months, they will tour Europe to play Ireland in a four-day game, three one-dayers and two Twenty20 games. There is also a possibility of matches against Netherlands and Scotland during the tour. Their immediate tour is to Pakistan, for an ODI and Twenty20 later this month. With less than two weeks left for the first game on April 29, the team hasn’t started training yet, though its been a hastily arranged tour. The more pressing matter, however, is whether Bangladesh will be given a schedule to train. Siraj said the committee is waiting for the ICC’s assessment report. “We have discussed the issue but we will wait for the ICC to let the board know about the progress,” he said.