The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is trying to induce the government for relaxing quarantine rules for Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, the board’s CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said on Saturday.
Shakib and Mustafiz both returned home from India on Thursday and are currently under a 14-day institutional quarantine in Dhaka.
Both of the players were playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) which was suspended after some cricketers and satffers tested positive for Covid-19.
Although the government’s Covid protocol requires all inbound passengers to go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine, the general protocol is not supposed to apply for athletes, Nizamuddin said.
“We are not expecting any special arrangement or privilege for them. The Covid protocol followed by our country is for general people. But it is different for international players. Shakib and Mustafiz returned home in a chartered flight and maintained a tight protocol,” the BCB CEO added.
He also said that the board is working closely with the health authority to minimize the quarantine period of these two cricketers.
The BCB earlier urged the health authority to reduce the period of quarantine for them, but the Directorate General of Health Services declined the request.
The Tigers are scheduled to play a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka starting May 23.
If the authority stays firm to not reduce the quarantine period of Shakib and Mustafiz, the players will have to stay in institutional quarantine till May 19. This means they will get only four days to practice ahead of the series.
The Tigers recently played a two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and lost it 1-0.
Bangladesh’s last ODI series was in New Zealand where they lost the series 3-0 to the hosts.
