MD ABU TALHA SARKER, Dhaka: Country’s cricketing authority Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided to adopt a ‘go slow policy’ for its women cricket team for whom the BCB doesn’t have any immediate plan to initiate any league or tournament or series whatsoever.
The board insiders say the BCB has decided to strongly organise its women cricket team during the big gap, which has been created because of the devastating coronavirus epidemic.
Buoyed by the success of the BCB President’s Cup, the BCB-Women’s Wing thought that the board would give them required permission to arrange games and tournaments in the weeks ahead side by side its regular training after having stayed in home quarantine for the last few months on the trot.
To see interest in training and practice among the women players on the stroke of the COVID-19 lockdown, the BCB discretely appointed a women’s trainer Sultana Yesmin Boishakhi to look after them.
All-rounder Salma Khatun and pace all-rounder Jahanara Alam went to the UAE to play Women’s T20 Challenge, dubbed Women’s IPL with proper fitness after doing outdoor practice for long.
Other national players remain busy practicing and holding regular gym sessions at the Mirpur Gymnasium of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur.
BCB-Women’s Wing In-Charge Tawhid Mahmood told The Independent that they were working towards defining the mechanism in which to move forward and start working for the women cricket.
“You know, we have been passing a crisis moment for the last seven-eight months. We wish the girls to come back to the field. But we can’t abruptly start playing any match or tournament or series or league. There is a process to follow. We’re now thinking about the process,” he said.
“In the meantime, the second wave of COVID-19 has started in different parts of the world. The big European countries including Germany, France, Italy etc have imposed lockdowns. The lockdown-like situation is going on in most of the countries. Our Prime Minister has recently given an indication of the second wave of COVID-19 in the ensuing winter. So, we want to start our full-fledged activities monitoring the situation. We think we have no problem in taking some extra time,” explained Tawhid.
Although Mahmood couldn’t tell the exact date of resuming any tournament for women’s cricket, it’s obvious from his words that there is no possibility of resuming any league in 2020.
However, the board is considering to fill soon the vacant post of the head coach for women’s team. The post remained vacant since the resignation of head coach Anju Jain and her deputy Devika Dillip Palshikar along with its other coaching staff just after the shoddy performance of Bangladesh in the 2020 World Cup in Australia.
Due to COVID-19, the board can’t appoint any foreign coach or coaching staff despite having their willingness. They continued their work for the team with the help of some local coaches.
The BCB, meanwhile, finalised former national pace bowler Manjurul Islam Manju as a selector for the women’s cricket. Former opening batsman Athar Ali Khan will be replaced by Manju.
In addition, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) first took a groundbreaking step towards resuming cricket for which the ICC made a string of changes for the games during the corona period.
The ECB were the first to introduce the new concept of bio-secure bubbles for resuming crickets in its backyard and successfully executed their plan. They also played a slew of international series against the West Indies, Ireland, Pakistan and Australia one after another.
Other nations are gradually coming out of the self quarantine and organise their initial plan with domestic games. Bangladesh among them have arranged a new tournament to bring players back on the field after a long corona-enforced layoff with the other being on the cards.
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