Visiting New Zealand on Friday were seemingly infuriated after the BCB denied them a chance to practise at the centre wicket of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, the single venue to be used in the five-match one-day series.
The request from the tourists came after their first warm-up match at the BKSP was called off due to unplayable ground condition. They are scheduled to play another warm-up match at the same venue on Sunday, but the chance is high that the game also may be cancelled as the playing condition hardly improved.
Facing a bleak prospect of going into the series without any serious practice, New Zealand also had requested to arrange a game at the SBNS on Saturday, but the BCB humbly turned down that request too.
The tourists took a lot of time to have batting practice indoors after completing their fielding practice inside the main venue.
Despite repeated attempts by the BCB officials they were hardly convinced and placed another request to give them a chance to practise at the centre wicket on Saturday. However, the BCB is very unlikely to keep the request.
‘All five matches will be held at this venue. So it is tough to provide them the centre wicket practice facilities as we have to give the curators enough time to prepare those wickets,’ said Gazi Ashraf Hossain, secretary of the tour organising committee.
‘We are still trying to make some arrangements for them, let’s see,’ he said.
The former national skipper said they were unable to arrange a warm-up match for them at the ground on Saturday for the same reason. The outfield at the Fatullah stadium in Narayanganj is also under-prepared, so they have no option other than the BKSP for warm-up matches, he said.
Sabbir Khan, manager of the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI, the opponents of New Zealand for the warm-up matches, said it would have been tough for them to arrange a match on Saturday even if they had the grounds available.
‘All of our players have already left Dhaka to play in the National Cricket League and the other group will only report on Saturday afternoon. So practically it was not possible to arrange a game on that day,’ he said.
The BCB named a 14-member squad with Nadif Chowdhury as captain for Sunday’s warm-up match and they are set to report to Sabbir at 2:00pm at the SBNS today.
