The Bangladesh Cricket Board won’t allow the fans in the gallery in the upcoming edition of Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League T20, slated from January 21, due to an upsurge in the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
“There will be no fans allowed inside the stadium during the upcoming BPL. There are directives given by the government and we are following it,” BPL Governing Council Secretary Ismail Haider Mallick confirmed to The Daily Sun on Saturday.
The Bangladesh government on January 10 issued an 11-point restriction in the country to resist the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of Covid-19 and according to the gazette, all kinds of political, social, religious and cultural programmes are prohibited until further notice.
Meanwhile, Mallick added they can’t have DRS (Decision Review System) in place during the tournament considering they are unable to bring technicians from abroad due to corona.
“We can’t use DRS in BPL due to the Covid situation. Now they (technicians) can’t fly. Their two teams are now in two countries, they won’t be able to come to Bangladesh in this situation,” said Mallick.
“Hawk-Eye Company is the sole provider of DRS in the world. No one wants to come because of Omicron,” he said, adding that he is confident that the franchises will understand the situation.
“There is nothing to discuss with the franchises about DRS. We didn’t get DRS and we will let them know. The tournament might indeed lose some of its appeal without DRS but there is nothing to do,” he added.
