The Bangladesh Cricket Board turned down an invitation from Ireland for a visit in August as it prefers a better preparation on home soil for the forthcoming
series against New Zealand, officials said on Tuesday.
Ireland invited Bangladesh to play three one-day internationals and two T20 internationals at their backyard in this Irish summer.
The BCB’s cricket operations committee sat with the national team selectors and coaches to discuss the informal invitation of Cricket Ireland and assess the programme set to prepare the Tigers for the New Zealand series.
‘They had not formally invited us. They just asked whether we are interested to make a short visit in August,’ said Enayet Hossain Siraj, chairman of the BCB’s cricket operations committee to New Age on Tuesday.
‘After considering the pros and cons we decided not to entertain the idea as the Dhaka Premier League is expected to start from July 1,’ said Siraj.
‘Some other players will be occupied in different age-level tournaments while there is also the tour of Bangladesh A in August,’ added Siraj.
The BCB decided to prefer fitness training before going for the skill camp.
A training camp will also make a week-long visit to Chittagong in September.
The BCB announced a 30-member preliminary squad for the home series against New Zealand in October-November 2013.
The available players will join a training camp starting Thursday. The camp will commence with fitness assessment on Thursday and Friday.
Preliminary Squad
Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmud Ullah, Tamim Iqbal, Sakib al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Elias Sunny, Ziaur Rahman, Masrafee bin Murtaza, Jahirul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Abdur Razzak, Naeem Islam, Anamul Haque, Sohag Gazi, Rubel Hossain, Musharraf Hossain, Mominul Hoque, Shamsur Rahman, Marshall Ayub, Shahriar Nafees, Shahadat Hossain, Robiul Islam, Imrul Kayes, Rokibul Hasan, Farhad Reza, Saqlain Sajib, Mehrab Hossain Jr, Nazmul Hossain Milon, Sajidul Islam and Junaid Siddique.
-With New Age input
