Zimbabwe Cricket’s decision to host Pakistan and the West Indies in a tri-series in August-September this year has left the Bangladesh cricketers and fans in utter dismay. It was widely suggested in the media and discussed among the general public that the tri-series was jointly hatched by the Pakistan Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board in order to deprive Bangladesh from a Champions Trophy berth.
Bangladesh Cricket Board’s media and communications chairman Jalal Younus however, refuted the allegations being posed upon the PCB and the WICB. The BCB director said he did not smell any foul-play and informed that the nations are well within their rights to organise a tri-series in accordance with the International Cricket Council regulations.
Only the top eight teams in the ICC’s ODI rankings as of September 30 this year will battle it out in the 2017 Champions Trophy in England. Bangladesh currently occupy seventh place with 93 points, five and six points ahead of the West Indies (eighth) and Pakistan (ninth) respectively.
During this time-frame, the Tigers will host South Africa in a three-ODI series, Sri Lanka will host Pakistan in a five-ODI series while there are no ODIs scheduled for the West Indies.
If the tri-series do take place, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and the West Indies will face each other twice in the double round-robin stage before the grand finale.
As far as the Tigers are concerned, the equation is simple; beat the Proteas at least once in three ODIs and qualify for the eight-team Champions Trophy.
“Actually, we have nothing to do here. There is no ICC FTP (Future Tours Programme) at the moment. I believe we still have the chance to keep our place intact in the Champions Trophy. We just need to perform in the ODI series against South Africa,” said Jalal yesterday.
Jalal stated that the bilateral agreement between two nations in place of the ICC FTP is causing harm and damage.
“I think the FTP used to work as a controller and it was good. The whole system has gone wrong ever since the ICC stopped following the FTP and let the boards deal bilaterally. This has created loopholes I believe. I don’t support this. This is not healthy competition,” added Jalal.
