BCB rejects Mushfiqur Rahim’s request to train at Sher-e-Bangla citing COVID-19 threat

“Mushfiq communicated with us, he wanted to begin personal training. But we told him that this is not yet a safe time to do so, he should train at home. Training is important, but players’ safety is more important to us,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury was quoted as saying by ‘Cricbuzz’.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has turned down former captain Mushfiqur Rahim and other senior players’ request to train at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur, citing health safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bangladeshi batsman Mushfiqur Rahim plays a shot during the second one-day international cricket match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Colombo. (AP)

The BCB said the disinfecting process is yet to be completed at the Mirpur facility.

“Mushfiq communicated with us, he wanted to begin personal training. But we told him that this is not yet a safe time to do so, he should train at home. Training is important, but players’ safety is more important to us,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury was quoted as saying by ‘Cricbuzz’.”A few other players wanted to know if they could do individual training. But our message was the same for all. We are working on disinfecting our facilities. But the job is yet to be completed.”

In Bangladesh 746 people have died and over 55,000 have tested positive for coronavirus.

“We need to consider the overall situation. We can’t rush into anything. Many countries are starting their activities; we will definitely do the same. However, we can’t give an exact date right now,” Nizamuddin said.”We have been working to disinfect the things we need for training after Eid, and it is in the process. After it is completed we can say that we are ready to start cricket training again.

“It is right that some other countries have started their training activities following the ICC guidelines and we will do the same. We’ll just see what their plans are before making plans to resume cricket.”BCB chief physician Debashish Chowdhury said that if BCB wants to hold a residential training programme for the whole team, then the medical team will also plan for a bio-safety bubble for the players.”Bio-safety bubble is what you put in an enclosed space. Keeping everyone inside a cover so that there is no communication from outside. Suppose you call a team of 15 players with five coaching staff, a total of 20 people, you check and test all of them. You isolated them by testing.”When you isolate them, you will see everything from their stay, their food to their transportation. They will not come in contact with anyone (outside),” he said.

Chowdhury also said that going by rate of infections, one needs to ascertain in which zone does the training facility falls.

“We need to see the zones because there is no point making plans taking certain venues into consideration and later finding out that it falls in the red zone,” he said.