Coronavirus: Mushfiqur Rahim's request to train at Sher-e-Bangla rejected by BCB citing COVID-19 threat

Dhaka, June 4: Former Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim's request to train at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur was turned down by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, citing health safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BCB said the disinfecting process is yet to be completed at the Mirpur facility, hence the request of the senior Bangladesh cricketers couldn't be fulfilled. "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'.

Coronavirus: West Indies trio withdraw from England tour over COVID-19 fears

"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.

"Then we will see the overall situation in 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."

The BCB Chief Executive said that the board will follow the ICC guidelines regarding the resumption of team training. "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 the 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.

(With PTI inputs)