Australia's proposed two-Test tour of Bangladesh in June has officially been postponed as the COVID-19 cases continuing to rise globally.
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Last month, skipper Tim Paine had said he doesn't expect Australia's two mid-year World Test Championship fixtures in Bangladesh to be played on time. Unfortunately, his fear has now turned out to be true as the cricket boards of both nations have agreed that it will be impossible to stage the series as planned due to Coronavirus crisis.
Not just the Bangladesh tour, the whole of the remaining Test championship cycle might be rescheduled given the gravity of the pandemic. Therefore, the officials now face the challenge of creating a window in the already cramped international calendar.
"Postponing the tour is regrettable, but I would like to thank the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the open, honest and responsible discussions that led us to this mutually-agreed position," Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
"The health of our people and communities is the number one priority for both Boards and that is reflected in the action we have taken in postponing the two Test matches.
"As we know, the global cricket calendar is very busy but we will do everything we can to honour our commitment to Bangladesh and will continue to work with the BCB on an agreed date."
Australian cricketers will have a hectic 2020-21 summer in which the scheduled events include ICC T20 World Cup, home Tests against Afghanistan and India, home and away ODI series against New Zealand and a Test tour of South Africa. It suggests there is not much space in the calendar between mid-October and the start of April.
Boards can reschedule series through bilateral agreement. But the impending World Test Championship final, slated to be held at Lord's in June 2021, will given an extra layer of headache to the boards looking to reorganise Test series.
The Bangladesh-Australia series is the second WTC campaign to be officially postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak. Last month, England flew home from their two-Test tour of Sri Lanka.
(Inputs from cricket.com.au)
