Just a day after the postponement of their home series against New Zealand, Bangladesh now have deferred their upcoming tour of Sri Lanka due to Covid-19 pandemic.
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce that the Bangladesh Cricket Board has informed Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) that a conducive environment has still not arrived for their players to take part in an international cricket series, purely due to the lack of preparation for its players, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said a Sri Lanka Cricket press release.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were expected to play a three-match Test series during the tour, under the ICC World Test Championship, in July-August.
The BCB however couldn’t start any training of its cricketers, considering the mayhem the deadly virus created in the country.
The cricket’s headquarter Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, which is in Mirpur, is also a badly affected area, with the numbers of infections increasing every day.
Bangladesh so far has reported 1,22,660 cases and 1582 deaths from the Covid-19. Earlier this week, cricketers Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, also a ruling party lawmaker from Narail-2 and Nazmul Islam, as well as former batsman Nafees Iqbal tested Covid-19 positive.
“The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Sri Lanka Cricket have agreed that Bangladesh National Team’s tour of Sri Lanka which was scheduled to be held during July 2020 will not take place and will be deferred to a mutually planned later date,” the Sri Lanka media release further said.
Bangladesh earlier had to postpone their third phase of tour in Pakistan, home Test series against Australia and New Zealand and an away tour in Ireland-England for the outbreak of the deadly virus. Sri Lanka tour is now the fifth series, that the BCB had to postpone.
Sri Lanka is in a better situation than Bangladesh in terms of numbers of Covid-9 cases and deaths, but it has also had its share of postponements.
Apart from the England team returning home from Sri Lanka after two practice matches, South Africa and India have also postponed tours of the island.
