Citing safety concerns, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has turned down a request from leading cricketers in the country to resume personal training at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Mushfiqur Rahim was one of the few cricketers who approached the BCB to start practice but was denied permission by the board as they are yet to complete disinfecting their facilities, reports Cricbuzz.
"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," said BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury.
"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."
BCB began its activities on a limited scale after the government lifted the lockdown in the country from May 31. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken 746 lives and infected over 55,000 so far in Bangladesh.
"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," said Nizamuddin.
"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.
"Then we will see the overall situation of the country. After assessing the overall situation we will call the players because, you have to understand, we can't risk the health of the players in any way because the players are a very valuable asset to the BCB.
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."
On May 22, the International Cricket Council published a set of guidelines for resumption of cricket. BCB chief physician Debashish Chowdhury said the BCB is also preparing plans following the ICC guidelines and won't take long to implement it. However, they have to await directives from the government.
"It is clearly stated in the ICC guidelines that government directives need to be taken into account before implementing the guidelines," said Debashish. "One training module is designed for solo training, one for group training, another we are doing only for the bowlers. Mainly pace bowlers but spin bowlers will also be involved.
"There are different modules of training - Sri Lanka is doing the full residential model only with bowlers, while England is doing it another way. This is just a guideline and it will be implemented differently, and so that's how we have made the plan. But if there is a situation in the team then we may not be able to follow," he said.
"Firstly solo training, which will be done by maintaining distance, under proper isolation. For example, one hour will be allotted for one person and he will come and do some drill and some skills, all alone, there will be a supervisor for him, there will be a trainer and a physio on the field, but there will be no one else. When he will leave another one will enter.
"The plan will be given to them in advance and they will execute the plan when they come there, and the trainer will supervise them. If they do it one by one, then there will be no problem," Debashish said. "We will bring three players for group training.
According to ICC's four-stage guideline they said one, three, 10, and more than 10 players. But it's just a guideline, and not everyone is following it. We will be limiting the number of support staff during the training, only a minimum number of people will be allowed in one session."
