We are not keen on playing against Pakistan at the moment, says BCB Chief

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief Nazmul Hassan recently quoted that the national side is not very keen on playing against Pakistan after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy. His remarks have come at a time when their Pakistan counterparts had postponed their tour to Bangladesh team expected to roll out in the month of July for a short international assignment.

Now, with his most recent remarks, the BCB Chief has certainly brought an end to the speculations of Bangladesh touring Pakistan for a series. As per the quotes in ESPNcricinfo, he noted that the U19 team or the High Performance team could have toured Pakistan but even that seems to be a far cry. He quipped that with the PCB postponing their tour, the talks of HP tour is also ruled out.

“We haven’t spoken about going to Pakistan since we heard their decision from the media. The national team [touring Pakistan] is out of the question. Our HP or U-19 [teams] might have gone there but when they made this announcement [of postponing the Bangladesh tour] we are no longer in talks. After this, there is no question of talking about the HP tour,” he quoted.

Busy schedule ahead

He further added that the board is not short on invitations. The HP team or the U19 team can travel to other places for their overseas tours. There are talks with the member boards of the other countries in this regard. Also, the national side has a lot of cricket lined up in front of them. Bangladesh is scheduled to host Australia at home after CT 2017, and then tour South Africa for a full tour.

“They will go elsewhere. We have confirmed programs with New Zealand and England. We are in talks with two more countries. Within a couple of months, we will be releasing the specific schedules. Many of these series will be held at home,” BCB chief quoted.

“I think we can rest our players during that time. Our boys are playing a lot these days. From Champions Trophy they’ll come home, play against Australia and then head off to South Africa. From there, they will come home and start with the BPL, and then they have more cricket,” he added further.

Pakistan not the only option

Nazmul Hassan reiterated the same yet again and noted that if the team feels the need to play in the month of July, then they have other options lined up for them and Pakistan is not the only option. For now, the board is keen on giving rest to players in July.

“I am not too keen about the Pakistan tour. But if we need to play [in that time], we have four or five countries lined up to play against Bangladesh. It won’t be hard to arrange matches, but right now we are not really keen on filling that gap either,” he conceded.