Bangladesh are ready to play a series in December involving India if they are formally invited, said a senior official of the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Sunday.
The talk of a series in December is hovering around for the last few days after it was reported that India are reluctant to play against Pakistan in December as planned earlier.India were due to play a bilateral series against Pakistan in December at Dubai but they reportedly said ‘no’ to their volatile neigbours, opening the door for Bangladesh to play some matches against them.
The speculation is that Bangladesh could be invited by India to play a bilateral series in their country or could be added as the third team in a tri-series, involving both India and Pakistan.
The tri-series could be held in Dhaka or Dubai.
BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury did not completely deny the speculation but added that they are yet to get any formal invitation from any country.
‘Possibly the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is discussing if the matter is really true. But we haven’t got any formal invitation from any quarter to host the tri-nation series’ he said.
‘We have a slot in hand. So, we can’t ignore any possibility of it. Only the host nation will tell who will be the participants,’ said Nizamuddin.
‘We held discussions not only with BCCI but also with other boards of the world cricket. In fact, we’re mulling over playing some away games in December,’ he said.
Nizamuddin also did not rule out the chance of a tri-series involving West Indies and Zimbabwe in November.
‘We didn’t close the discussion to host the tri-nation with the involvement of the West Indies and Zimbabwe,’ said Nizamuddin.
‘West Indies are busy in playing in Sri Lanka. We didn’t get any decision from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB),’ he said.
West Indies will play their last match in Sri Lanka on November 12 and will visit Australia in December. In between they have a small window which BCB is looking to use.
Officials indicated if West Indies agree to play the series, the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 tournament could be deferred two days from its original starting date of November 22.
Bangladesh are also expected to host Zimbabwe in November, but Nizamuddin said they are yet to finalise the number of matches for the series.
‘The number of matches for the upcoming home series against Zimbabwe in November will be fixed after the consultation of our team management and head coach,’ he said.
‘We are now doing this work. Hopefully we could sort out within the next two days,’ he said.
‘The Test series will be held in January, 2016. We have every possibility to play a couple of Twenty20 matches alongside Test matches ahead of the next ICC World Twenty20 2016,’ he added.
-With New Age input
