DHAKA -The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) agreed in principle to bring local cricketers under a COVID-19 vaccination programme by February in an effort to re-start domestic cricket.
The decision was taken in the ninth board meeting, which was held virtually on Wednesday.
To resume the domestic cricket is the first priority of the BCB as the large number of the cricketers in the country depend on this league to run their family.
Earlier BCB president Nazmul Hasan Papon said that if the Bangladesh government has brought the vaccine before that timeframe, the players will get priority in being inoculated with vaccine.
“The vaccine which will come in private channel will be brought to us in mid-February. Then in fact those who are in cricket will definitely get our first priority,” Papon said.
“I heard the government has a plan to bring vaccine before that. There is no reason for the cricketers to not get vaccine if government brings it. But if it comes in private channel, I think cricket players will get first priority.”
The BCB though organized two tournaments-BCB President’s Cup and Bangabandhu T20 Cup, keeping the players in the bio-bubble in the pandemic time, it is not possible to start Dhaka Premier League (DPL) which provides the bread and butter for the most of the cricketers in Bangladesh.
In DPL, 12 teams generally took part and so to create bio-bubble for those 12 team’s players and official is simply impossible. Considering those factors, BCB’s first priority is to vaccinate the players and then resume the DPL, which was postponed in March after one round.BSS
