The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has postponed the Mujib 100 T20 Cup Bangladesh 2020 due to the present condition of the COVID-19 or Coronavirus threat. According to this special series schedule, Asia XI and World XI would play two special T20I matches in late of this month.
In the celebration of birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh, the BCB planned to organise two T20Is between Asia XI and World XI. Initially, the match dates were 18th and 21st March 2020.
However, later, the board changed the game dates to 21st and 22nd March 2020 respectively. Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (Dhaka) was ready to organise both these matches.
Even, the BCB recently confirmed the Asia XI squad. While the Pakistan players were unavailable for this series due to the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL 2020), a total of five Indian cricketers already confirmed their availabilities along with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal cricketers. Among the Asia XI players, only the Indian captain Virat Kohli hasn’t confirmed yet.
Talking about the World XI, the BCB already confirmed the 11 non-Asian players. They were recently busy to confirm the availabilities of some Australian cricketers.
But just around ten days ahead of this series, the BCB has postponed this special T20I series in the wake of the Coronavirus threat. The Coronavirus threat is rising rapidly in the world as more than 1,20,000 people have been affected, including the rising death tally of more than 4,000.
We will host it after a few months when the time is appropriate: BCB chief
Bangladesh is still very much safe as only three active cases have been confirmed in this country. But the BCB can’t guarantee on the availabilities of the foreign international players.
However, The BCB has also confirmed that they will host these special T20I matches after a few months when the condition will be better.
The BCB chief Nazmul Hasan said on Wednesday (11th March), “We have postponed those two matches for the time being. We are having problem hosting the matches on 21 and 22 and so we have deferred it. There is no guarantee that everyone can come and play here so we have decided that both the concert and the two matches are deferred. Lot of restrictions are coming in from different quarters. We will host it after few months when the time is appropriate.”
While Bangladesh are currently playing the two-match home T20I series against Zimbabwe, the BCB has decided to sell one ticket per person to avoid the massive crowd on the ground.