Bangladesh to decide over Pakistan's revised Test series proposal on Jan 9

Bangladesh is due to travel to Pakistan for two World Test Championship fixtures.

Pakistan may host Bangladesh for a Test series later in January | GettyAfter Pakistan's revised offer, the Bangladesh Cricket Board will on Thursday (January 9) make a final statement over the scheduled two World Test Championship fixtures. 

The BCB had earlier cited security concerns as a major hurdle to touring Pakistan for Test matches and wished to test the ground reality with a short T20I visit first. 

However, as per the revised offer, after intimating its Asian counterparts of the arrangements, the Pakistan Cricket Board has proposed to play the two Tests later this month and come around for the T20Is near the T20 World Cup in Australia in October. 

Read Also: PCB rejects Bangladesh's proposal to share host Test series in Dhaka

"We have very little time in hand so we must decide by Thursday," BCB president Nazmul Hassan said after speaking with all the stakeholders in a meeting. "We have to consider the consequences of not touring, which is what we discussed with everyone. We are not worried about the bilateral T20I series, but we are unclear about the World Test Championship."

"We said we want to play only T20Is, but they wanted us to play the Tests. We will play the T20Is bilaterally before the [T20] World Cup. This was PCB's proposal today, but we haven't decided yet. We will on Thursday."

The BCB, it was earlier reported, also proposed share-hosting the Test series in Dhaka. "If you consider, it takes lesser time to play one Test than three T20Is," Hassan said. "We will reach there the day before, and play five days."

"It may take seven or eight days to play the T20I series. We never said we wouldn't play in Pakistan. We are worried about the duration. Everyone is a little nervous staying there for a longer period."

But contrary to what Hussain suggested, various Bangladeshi players had registered their name in the Pakistan Super League draft knowing fully well that the entire tournament will be played in Pakistan this time.

"Mushfiqur (Rahim, Bangladesh veteran) never showed any interest to go to Pakistan," Hassan said. "The others are more interested in a short tour. We informed the PCB about this but they responded by saying if our players had agreed to play PSL for 35 days in different parts of Pakistan, why couldn't they play with the national team for a lesser duration. Most of our coaching staff is not willing to go. Our head coach said he will go for the T20Is. All the players want a short stay." 

"We can't really draw a conclusion from what they have said," he added. "They said that they won't be selected in the draft just because they sent their names. Then they would need an NOC from the BCB, so they tried to say that they gave their names for the sake of it."

(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 09 Jan, 2020

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