Bangladesh's Sri Lanka tour postponed amidst failed quarantine period negotiations

BCB couldn't agree to SLC's 14-day quarantine rule for its players.

By Jatin Sharma - 28 Sep, 2020

Bangladesh’s upcoming three-Test tour to Sri Lanka has been postponed to a date to be revealed later, after the talks of revising the quarantine period ended in a stalemate between the BCB and the SLC.

The length of the quarantine, which the Sri Lankan health authorities had insisted be 14 days, with the players' movement strictly limited to their hotel rooms, was the main proposal the Bangladesh board refused to agree with.

"Any tourist who is entering Sri Lanka has to abide by this rule [of 14 days in quarantine]. They [the SLC] have told us that they couldn't do anything about this point [about quarantine]. We have informed them that we have to reschedule the tour to a time when things will improve,” Nazmul Hassan, the BCB president, said on Monday.

Sri Lankan authorities were concerned as Covid-19 is understood to be spreading in Bangladesh and some high profile members of Bangladesh’s potential squad had also tested positive for the virus.

Stricter quarantine regulations Bangladesh's bugbear in touring Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, has had minimal spread of the virus for the last few months, and life has largely returned to normal, aside from tight controls at the border.

One SLC official expressed mild frustration at the government, calling health authorities "completely inflexible", but also advised both the authorities and SLC were wary of being blamed for a potential outbreak via the tour.

Another SLC official also said the BCB had at one point asked for a three-day quarantine, which the official described as "ridiculous".

BCB Chief Hassan had said two weeks ago, that Bangladesh won't go ahead with the tour if the 14-day quarantine was put in place. This led to Sri Lanka's sports minister Namal Rajapaksa mentioning that he had asked the SLC to consult with the country's Covid-19 task force to reconsider the matter.

SLC then came up with the split two-week quarantine proposal between the two countries, but BCB rejected that as well.

(ESPNCricinfo inputs)

By Jatin Sharma - 28 Sep, 2020

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