Bangladesh might have to send a second string team to India as Nazmul Hassan, the chief of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), has said he is “quite sure” the senior players will refuse to take the flight to India at the very last minute.
The relationship between the Bangladesh players and the BCB has soured quite a bit in the recent times. First, the players went on strike listing their demands regarding the betterment of domestic infrastructure.
Then, in a settlement meeting between the players and the board, Nazmul scolded a young player which was not taken in a good taste by the other players.
It didn’t stop there. The board chief, thereafter, threatened to sue Shakib Al Hasan for agreeing to endorse a brand without board’s permission which worsened the situation even more.
For now, all the senior players have been included in the squad for the India vs Bangladesh T20I series and Shakib has been named the captain of the squad.
But, according to Nazmul, the players are planning to put the board in a situation where they won’t even have time to assemble a second string squad.
“I am quite sure that they won’t go, and they will only inform us when we have nothing to do about it. If they say on October 30 that they won’t go, what will we do? We have to change the entire combination. Where will I get a captain from?”, Nazmul was quoted saying by the Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo.
Nazmul also said he was going to have a meeting with Shakib later today where he would clearly ask him if he wanted to go or not. The picture would be much clearer after that meeting.
The Bangladesh cricket team is having a training camp ahead of the India tour. Shakib has kept himself away for most parts of the camp. He attended for a day and is nowhere to be seen ever since.
