BCCI CALLS OFF LIMITED-OVERS TOURS TO SL, ZIMBABWE
appears it will still be a while before the Indian cricket team returns to playing. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a statement on Friday announced that it will not tour Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe to play limited-overs series due to the current Covid-19 situation.
As per the Future Tours programme, India were scheduled to travel to Sri Lanka from June 24 for three ODIS and T20IS each, and to Zimbabwe for a three-odi series starting on August 22.
BCCI, in a media release, said it will conduct a camp for its contracted players—stuck indoors since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in late March— only ‘when it is completely safe to train outdoors’.
The board does not seem to expect Indian cricketers returning to competition before September-october, while it is involved in a scheduling tussle with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to stage the IPL. The ICC T20 World Cup is scheduled in Australia from October 18. Though staging a world event in current circumstances appears very difficult, ICC has not called off or postponed the event yet.
“ICC should take a decision soon because if the World Cup is happening, teams have to prepare for it. Players are all still in lockdown,” IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said on Thursday.
The other competition India could possibly play is the Asia Cup in September. Although Pakistan are willing to cede hosting rights to Sri Lanka, BCCI officials say there is little chance of a six-nation event taking place amid health concerns and a 14-day quarantine protocol. BCCI and Cricket South Africa (CSA) have discussed playing a three-match T20 series in August, but there is no guarantee as of now that it will go ahead. BCCI’S statement makes it clear it will not push Virat Kohli and his team into playing without having all safeguards in place and assessing the pandemic situation.
“BCCI is determined to take steps towards the resumption of international and domestic cricket, but it will not rush into any decision that will jeopardise the efforts put in by the Central and State governments and several other respective agencies in containing the spread of the coronavirus,” its statement said.
PAK PICK TEEN STARS FOR ENGLAND TOUR
Teenage sensations Haider Ali and Naseem Shah have been picked for Pakistan’s tour of England next month. Pakistan’s 29-member squad will begin the tour with at least a month of training in a ‘biosecure’ environment, before the series of three Tests and three T20IS gets cracking on August 5.
Seventeen-year-old pacer Shah will be a star attraction, having become the youngest bowler ever to take a Test hattrick in February after only debuting in Australia last year. Haider’s inclusion, at the age of 19, will also spark excitement.