A visit to Sri Lanka has been delayed due to differences between Sri Lanka and the Bangladesh Cricket Board over quarantine policy.
Cricket website Kirk Info reports that weeks of negotiations between the two boards on quarantine issues have failed to reach a final conclusion.
Sri Lankan health officials had suggested that the quarantine period would be 14 days and that the movement of players would be restricted to hotel rooms, but the Bangladesh board did not agree.
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Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazemul Hassan said the tour had not yet been canceled but had been asked to reschedule after a failed agreement between the two boards.
“Every tourist visiting Sri Lanka needs a 14-day quarantine, so the board made it clear to us that there is nothing we can do about it,” he said.
“We have informed them that the tour will be postponed until the situation improves and we cannot play the ICC Test Championship on their guidelines,” the BCB president said.
“The cricket board and the sports ministry put in a lot of effort. They agreed to all our demands but disagreed on the 14-day quarantine,” he said.
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Nazemul Hassan said that what Sri Lanka is calling quarantine is in fact complete isolation, a cricketer needs a long time for physical and mental fitness to get out of this isolation, in these conditions the game will not be possible.
The BCB president had said two weeks ago that the team would not travel to Sri Lanka on the condition of a 14-day quarantine, after which Sri Lankan Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa asked them to speak to the committee overseeing code-19 matters. Will
Sri Lanka’s sports ministry had made it clear to its health ministry that there would be differences between the two countries if the 14-day quarantine was not relaxed, but they refused.
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The Bangladesh Cricket Board also announced a 27-member preliminary squad for the tour and started training last week.
It is to be noted that Bangladesh was scheduled to play a series of 3 Test matches against Sri Lanka in the tour which is now delayed.
The first Test of the series between the two teams was scheduled to start on October 23 in Pali.