BCB in touch with PCB

Bangladesh Cricket Board's chief executive, Nizamuddin Chowdhury, said on Wednesday that they are in discussion with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ahead of the two-match Test series between Bangladesh and Pakistan scheduled from August 21, reports Cricbuzz.

PCB has offered to host the Bangladesh players for extra days and provide all necessary training facilities in Rawalpindi ahead of the Test matches due to civil unrest in Bangladesh.

Reaching Pakistan early for practice purposes "is part of discussion but we haven't taken any decision in this regard because we have to talk to the interim government before making a final call," Chowdhury told the sports online portal.

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who is set to become the chief adviser to the interim government, will arrive in the country today (Thursday) afternoon.

In another development Bangladesh Cricket Board announced today (Thursday) that the Bangladesh A Team will reach Islamabad on August 10 for two four-day and three one-day matches against Pakistan Shaheens. The matches had to be rescheduled due to the political crisis in Bangladesh. The first four-day match will now be played from August 13-16 and the second game will be played from August 20-23. The three one-day games will be played on August 26, 28 and 30.

It is understood that the Test cricketers who are part of the Bangladesh A team will stay back in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, cricket resumed in Bangladesh after a gap of couple of days due to the curfew imposed by the army, with the training session of Bangladesh A team at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the city on Wednesday. Bangladeshi cricketers observed a one-minute silence in memory of the victims of the recent government crackdowns on anti-quota protesters and subsequent violence that left around 400 dead, before the start of the practice session at Mirpur in the city. The senior men's team is expected to start their training session from August 08.

BCB cricket-operations in-charge Shahriar Nafees said that they will communicate with all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan in the coming days. Shakib is currently playing in the Global T20 league in Canada and is expected to be available ahead of the two-match Test series against Pakistan. There have been security concerns in Shakib's case as he was a Member of the Parliament from the then ruling party Awami League that was dissolved recently.

"Shakib's NOC is till August 12. On August 13, he is supposed to return to the country and report to us. He still has two to three matches remaining and we will communicate with him and try to know his plans," said Nafees.