BCB shaken by World T20 plans

Bangladesh Cricket Board have to change the plans about their World T20 squad as ICC will reportedly only allow 23 members per side, including 15 players and eight support staff, during the global event.

Earlier this year, ICC had increased the number of squad members to 30 from the previous norm of 23 responding to the Covid-19 situation.

ICC are yet to confirm that the squad size has been turned back to 23, a Pakistan Cricket Board official said that the original squad size would comprise 15 players and eight support staff.

Media communications chairman of BCB, Jalal Yunus said on Sunday that this number was too low and ICC should have allowed the teams to travel with additional members due to the strict quarantine rules and the difficulty of bringing replacements from back home.

“I believe it is inadequate (The number of players and staff to be included). There should have been different rules because of the pandemic,” Jalal said.

But he added that this doesn’t mean the teams can not take backup players or additional staff with them. But ICC will not pay for them.

“We can still take backup players to the World Cup. But ICC will not pay for them and we will have to pay. But there is still an opportunity,” he said.

Bangladesh will train for a week in Oman ahead of their group stage games. The World T20 will be held in October-November in UAE and Oman.