Cricket Australia postponing their tour to Bangladesh has somewhat ended the Tigers’ calendar year as their next international assignment, a home series against Zimbabwe, is scheduled in January 2016. In a year when the country hosted the top ranked teams for bilateral series’, Australia’s security concern seemed baseless and it is indeed a big setback for the game in Bangladesh.
However, moving forward Bangladesh Cricket Board tournament committee chairman Akram Khan intends to use this time to revive the ongoing National Cricket League for which the national squad cricketers are fully available.
BCB suspended the national cricketer’s camp for the two-match Test series against Australia scheduled to begin on October 9 and directed them to join their respective NCL squads and participate in the first-class tournament which over the past years has lost the charm.
“This is a golden opportunity for those who are in the pipeline for the national team. They are getting opportunity to play with and against the top cricketers of the country,” said Akram to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
“But still I think Cricket Australia’s decision has harmed us a lot. Bangladesh had a significant rise in their one-day performance and were developing as a strong Test unit. I know Australia is way better than us but we were on a flow to do well. Bangladesh could have improved its reputation in the format and create scopes to play more Tests in the future,” the former Bangladesh skipper added.
However, Akram does not think the issue will effect the upcoming third edition of the Bangladesh Premier League next month and many are skeptical with the participations of the foreign cricketers in the tournament but not Akram.
He said, “The excuse Australia gave was surprising. The country was in a horrible situation in 2014 but despite that we pulled up successful international events like the Asia Cup, World Cup Twenty20 and a bilateral series against Sri Lanka. I think they (Australia) should have taken our reputation of successfully hosting events into consideration. I don’t think foreigners in BPL will be any issue.”
