MUMBAI: The England and Wales Cricket Board and the Bangladesh Cricket Board confirmed Tuesday that they had "mutually decided" (with more than a little nudging from the BCCI it does not need adding) to reschedule England’s Men’s planned six-match tour of Bangladesh, which was due to take place in September and October, to March 2023.
The tour includes three One Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals.
The tour is now planned to take place in the first two weeks of March 2023, with three ODIs and three T20Is due to take place at the SBNCS, Dhaka, and the ZACS, in Chattogram, the two boards declared.
Although the joint statement gave no reason for the postponement, a packed scheduled along with COVID-19-related quarantine protocols were purportedly behind the rescheduling.
Whatever may be the official reasoning, the unstated one is that the rescheduling would give the England and bangladesh players the opportunity to resume playing for their Indian Premier League teams around the same time.
Which provides a good time as any for SportzPower to indulge in some speculation around possible quid pro quos and fallouts. One is that all this reshuffling of the Future Tours Programme deck across cricket probably means that the 2023 World Cup qualifiers will now get pushed to post-June 2022. Two is that the BCCI will likely have promised BCB one more tour in the next FTP. And the third is a bit tangential but makes sense when viewed from this perch. ECB chief executive Tom Harrison can expect the support of the BCCI if and when he puts his hat in the ring as a candidate for next ICC CEO, which currently has Geoff Allardice holding fort till a permanent appointment is made.
Meanwhile, England’s top players are preparing for the first Test against India at Trent Bridge which begins on Wednesday. The teams are set for a five-Test series, also including matches at Lord’s, Headingley and the Oval, before concluding with a match at Old Trafford in Manchester from September 10.
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