The Bangladesh Cricket Board said on Sunday that the touring England side will not play any practice game during their upcoming tour and want to complete their stay with only official matches.
According to the initial iterinary, England were expected to play two practice games on February 24 and 26 respectively before the start of their three-match ODI series.
A top BCB official confirmed that England will arrive in Dhaka on February 24 instead of February 20 while the dates of the ODIs and T20s that were declared remained unchanged.
“England team informed us that they are planning to restrict their tour only with official matches and we are planning accordingly,” BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday.
In the recent past, there was a huge hue and cry for more international matches in Sylhet and the demand went upward following the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League, the country’s lone franchise-based T20 tournament, as every day the games are played with full crowds at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
Recently BCB’s director Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel said that they are not aware why they are not getting the chance to host international teams as he believes they have everything that is required for international matches.
Nizamuddin said that he understands the disappointment of Nadel, who is representing Sylhet Division in the board, while adding that they wanted to hold the England practice matches there before the tourists walked out from it.
“We are hosting Ireland in Sylhet so this is not a fact that we are not using that venue and we want to use every venue by playing it at different times,” he said.
Ireland will start their tour of Bangladesh following the England series with the three-match ODI series in Sylhet while followed it with three T20Is at the Chattogram’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. The visitors then will conclude the series with a one-match Test series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.
