The Bangladesh Cricket Board is passing a difficult time in finalising the itinerary of the forthcoming home series against New Zealand despite the arrival date of the tourists is just three weeks away. The New Zealand team are scheduled to reach Dhaka on October 1 to play two Tests three one-day internationals and one Twenty20 international until November 6 during their month-long sojourn.
Officials said they are considering many issues including the approval of new venue Sylhet before finalising the schedules.
Though the Twenty20 match is scheduled at Sylhet venue it has still not received the ICC approval and an approval is also needed for the Fatullah stadium where the BCB is planning to host the last ODI on November 4.
The ICC had recently asked the BCB to obtain re-accreditation for the Fatullah stadium as no international match was played there since 2006.
In the newly-drafted itinerary, the Kiwis will start their campaign with a three-day practice match from October 3-5 at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong. After playing the first Test in the port city from October 9-13 both the teams will return to Dhaka for the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from October 21-25.
The two teams will start the three-match ODI series at the SBNS from October 29 followed by two other matches on October 31 and November 3.
It was learnt that the BCB had to alter their original plan of starting the series from Dhaka as it expected some logistic hassles and decided to kick off the series from Chittagong instead.
But the decision to hold the first Test match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium just before the Eid-ul-Azha raised quite a few eyebrows taking into account the adverse situation likely to prevail in the port city.
A traditional cattle market on the approach road to the stadium will start functioning on September 20 and is expected to continue until the Eid day which puts the BCB at risk of being embarrassed before the visiting team.
Enayet Hossain Siraj, the cricket operations chairman of the BCB, said they did not have any idea of the cattle market when the itinerary was drafted but will now think about it seriously.
The cattle market also posed a security threat, which the BCB said will discuss with the relevant authorities.
‘I have already asked the CEO to look into the matter. Hopefully we will find a solution,’ said Siraj.
-With New Age input