MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India has reportedly declined a request from the Cricket Association of Bengal to allow its senior men’s team to take part next month in a Twenty20 tournament in Namibia.
The Bengal state team was expected to play in the Global T20 Namibia against the Namibia national men’s team, a representative team from the Pakistan Super League’s Lahore Qalandars, as well as Momentum Multiply Titans, a Cricket South Africa domestic franchise .
So much for hopeful speculation doing the rounds recently that active Indian cricketers might get to play in the Twenty20 leagues that the Emirates Cricket Board and Cricket South Africa are setting up.
The BCCI has till date used its financial might to ensure that Indian players are denied the opportunity to play in overseas T20 leagues to “protect the brand value of the IPL”.
However, this being a league organised by an associate member nation – Cricket Namibia – and with no franchise or ownership involved, the CAB officials had formally sought a No Objection Certificate from the BCCI hoping that it would allow for players’ participation in the tournament.
Sportstar reports that in its communication to the CAB, the board has clarified that it will not allow the players to feature in the T20 tournament, Sportstar reports. Following the BCCI’s diktat, the CAB has informed the management company which was liaisoning on behalf of Cricket Namibia that it would not be possible for them to field a team.
“There seems to be a problem because of the format, it appears that had it not been T20s, there wouldn’t be an issue,” a senior CAB functionary told ESPNcricinfo.
On July 22, the CAB had named a 16-man team for the tournament, to be led by regular captain Abhimanyu Easwaran, and featuring prominent players like Shahbaz Ahmed, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and Writtick Chatterjee. At the time, CAB joint-secretary Debabrata Das had told the cricket website, “The broadcasters for the tournament came before our president [Avishek Dalmiya] and invited us. We took the opportunity to play six-seven games before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy [India’s domestic T20 tournament for men], because we can get to play against a World Cup team.”
For Namibia, the tournament is a chance to finetune their preparations for the men’s T20 World Cup, to be held in Australia in October-November. At the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE, Namibia finished fifth in Group 2 after making it from the preliminary round to the Super 12 stage. Namibia will play an ODI tri-series in Papua New Guinea after this T20 tournament before leaving for Australia, where they are grouped with Sri Lanka, Netherlands and UAE in the first round.
When it was scheduled to be a four-team tournament, it had been slotted from September 1 to 9 in the Namibian capital city of Windhoek. Sportstar reports that the tournament will be going ahead with the remaining two international teams.
For the Bengal team, too, it would have been a pre-season tour, but with the BCCI refusing to give a go-ahead, it has to look for a different option to get the players ready for the domestic season.
