Families of our cricketers are not willing to send their sons to Pakistan amid Coronavirus threat: BCB Chief

The confusion over whether Bangladesh will travel to Pakistan for the third leg of their tour has become more evident thanks to the Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Nazmul Hassan’s latest statement on social media. Bangladesh is expected to play one ODI and one Test in this leg, after previously playing 3 T20Is and one Test a couple of months ago.

Earlier it was the concern due to security that Bangladeshi players were reluctant to travel to Pakistan altogether, but the PCB quelled those concerns by displaying presidential level arrangements to a special delegation of BCB and then staying true to their promise by providing same level security to Bangladesh team when they arrived in the country.

Still, one player refused to travel and that was veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim, who was even threatened with action and being told that he was contractually bound to doing as the board says and that the country came first than anything else. However, now with the threat of coronavirus becoming prominent day-by-day; the remainder of the tour seems to be in danger.

Families of our cricketers are concerned about coronavirus: Nazmul Hassan

The ongoing PSL 5 has been curtailed by 4 days and is being played in empty stadiums. The majority of foreign players have returned home following the advisory issued by their respective countries. Amidst this concern, the BCB chief Nazmul Hassan Papon released a statement citing that families of the players are not willing to send the players to Pakistan.

“Families of our cricketers are concerned about coronavirus. They’re not willing to send their sons to play cricket amid this fear. So, I think it is tough for us to tour Pakistan now,” BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon was quoted by Pak Passion’s Saj Sadiq.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon "Families of our cricketers are concerned about coronavirus. They’re not willing to send their sons to play cricket amid this fear. So, I think it is tough for us to tour Pakistan now" #PAKvBAN #Cricket #CoronavirusPandemic

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) March 15, 2020

The coronavirus threat has affected more than 150,000 people worldwide with more than 5,800 patients dying until now. The virus has also affected Pakistan with 34 people being tested positive with the COVID-19 virus. A major crisis is that the country is already fighting rising inflation and lack of funds for day-to-day things and is not able to find money to be able to provide proper medication and other things to patients of this virus.