BCB to start residential camp on Sept 21

A week-long residential camp under Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will begin on September 21ahead of the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka,reports Cricbuzz.

BCB will conduct a three-phase coronavirus test ahead of the tour. They are having regular discussions with the medical unit to make sure they can quickly fix things around if anyone is tested positive during or ahead of the tour.

While the board will be picking a bigger squad for precautionary reasons, they also want to provide the selectors with an opportunity to trim the final squad following the performances in the practice and warm-up games ahead of the series.

"We will go to everyone's [cricketers] house on September 18 to do the Covid test. We are planning to get into a hotel from September 20 and start the practice on September 21, and hope to train for some days before going to Sri Lanka," BCB cricket operations chairman Akram Khan told reporters on Tuesday.

"We have to keep them in quarantine and we have to do the tests quite regularly. We will do the first test on 18th while the second test will be on 21st, and we will again do a test before going to Sri Lanka. SLC will do regular tests and if anyone is found positive, he will have to stay in quarantine. We are talking about those things as we want to be as safe as possible.

"It will be a 20 to 22-member squad. We have to keep a lot of replacements because handling the Covid-19 situation is not as easy as it looks and we are working on it. [We will have a big pool of cricketers] as we will be playing quite a few Tests in the upcoming days.

"Those who have played for us in the last series will be in the squad comprised of 20 to 22 cricketers. We will play a slew of practice matches from where we will have a chance to pick the right players for the series. We'll play three to four warm-up matches in Sri Lanka from where the selectors will have a chance to pick the right players," he added.

All cricketing activities were closed in Bangladesh since the outbreak of coronavirus in March and resumed on a minimum scale thorough the ongoing individual training session late last month.

The Bangladesh's tour of Sri Lanka which was scheduled for July-August, comprising three Tests, was postponed indefinitely because of the Covid-19 situation. Bangladesh, who were expected to travel to Sri Lanka on September 23, have not postponed the plans to September 27.

Akram added that SLC is coming up with a different opinion regarding the duration of quarantine and they are waiting for the final decision as they will plan accordingly based on the decision of the Sri Lankan board.

"This is a big tour and we are yet to get confirmation regarding the quarantine period in Sri Lanka because once they said that we need to stay for 14 days and now they are insisting that it will be only three to four days. So we are confused but they said that they will let us know their final decision and we are waiting for it because we will plan accordingly.

The online sports portal has learnt that Bangladesh head coach Russel Domingo is expected to arrive on September 02 while others will follow him soon considering that they will have to complete a 14-day quarantine before joining the residential camp for the series. It will be the first three-match Test series in six years for Bangladesh.