The West Indies cricket team is likely to play two instead of the scheduled three Test matches on their tour of Bangladesh that is coming up.
Guardian Media Sports understands that a request has been made by Cricket West Indies for the reduction citing that the West Indies players will have a hard time staying in the bio-secure bubble for a long period given their recent cricket assignments.
The West Indies cricket team is currently in New Zealand where they will play three T20 Internationals and two Test matches. Some of the players would have been in the bio-secure bubble in the United Arab Emirates to play in the Indian Premier League. That ended only yesterday and they will fly into New Zealand on time to be available for the first of three T20s Friday morning.
The others would have been in New Zealand for quite a while in quarantine preparing for the series as well. It will mean that when they leave New Zealand they will be home for just a short period and then back into quarantine for Bangladesh. Based on this a request has been made to reduce the series from three to two Tests to cut the time in the bubble.
Meanwhile, CWI has sent a two-member inspection team to Bangladesh to conduct a detailed assessment ahead of the scheduled ICC Future Tours Programme in January.
The tour is due to feature matches in both the ongoing ICC Test Match Championship and the ICC One-Day International Super League. The recce will be conducted by CWI Board Director, Dr Akshai Mansingh (a member of the CWI’s and ICC’s Medical Advisory Committee) and Paul Slowe, CWI’s Security Manager.
While in Bangladesh, they will visit all the proposed facilities for the tour in both Dhaka and Chattogram, attend matches in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup and also get a first-hand look at the country's COVID-19 response protocols.
CEO of CWI Jonny Grave said: "We would be the first International Team to visit Bangladesh since the onset of the pandemic and, acting always with the health and safety of our touring party at the forefront of our minds, we have decided to conduct a pre-tour recce by sending two highly experienced professionals to assess the BCB’s bio-secure plans and protocols. Our respective medical and operations teams have held several positive meetings over the last few weeks and the following receipt of the report from our inspection team, a recommendation will be made to our Board of Directors on whether it is safe to tour Bangladesh early next year.”
The tour of Bangladesh would be the third tour for the West Indies Men's team since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are presently in New Zealand, while earlier this year they visited England where they played three Test matches, in a bio-secure environment, which marked the return to the game on the international stage.