BCB angry with SLC’s double standard

Bangladesh Cricket Board officials have expressed their wonder with the double standard of Sri Lanka Cricket after Lankan authorities relaxed their quarantine policy for the England team, something they refused to do for Bangladesh in September.

‘May be they don’t like us, what else could be the reason!’ BCB cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan expressed his bewilderment to New Age at the Lankan board’s actions.

Sri Lanka had been one of the closest allies of Bangladesh in the field of cricket diplomacy and resource sharing.

BCB has appointed a good number of Sri Lankans in various roles in the past, including former national team head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe, batting coach Thilan Samaraweera and strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan.

Currently BCB chief pitch curator Gamini de Silva, High Performance unit’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayeke and the head coach of Under-19 team Naveed Nawaz are few of the notable Sri Lankans working in Bangladesh cricket.

Akram said that in coming days the relationship between the two countries cricket boards might sour as a consequence of their double standard regarding quarantine.

‘Sri Lanka had been our trusted friend. After the Easter Bombings, when security threats were high, even on that time we traveled to Sri Lanka. They also came to Bangladesh. But what they did is totally unacceptable and the news came to us as a shock,’ Akram told New Age.

According to a Sri Lankan newspaper, England cricket team will arrive in Sri Lanka on January next year to finish the our which they left unfinished in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

‘England will arrive around 3 January and they will have about 11 days before the first Test, which will be played from 14-18 January. The second Test will take place from 23-27 January,’ SLC chief executive officer Ashley de Silva was quoted by Daily FT.

Bangladesh was supposed to tour Sri Lanka in October for two Tests but the tour was postponed at the last moment due to disagreements between the two boards regarding quarantine policy.

SLC had claimed that the matter was out of their jurisdiction as their COVID-19 Taskforce had set the quarantine policy.

The Lankan board also said that they requested their health authorities but they did not agree to relax some restrictions.

But on Friday, SLC announced that the English team won’t even have to stay in quarantine in Sri Lanka, which added insult to injury for Bangladesh. Akram told New Age that BCB will take up the matter to ICC.

‘After seeing the news, I haven’t gone to the board yet. We will definitely discuss the issue with the board president and among ourselves as well. We will take the matter to the high-ups, this is unacceptable,’ said the former cricketer.