KARACHI: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (PCB) has alleged that the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) “unfair” schedule for the ongoing Men’s U19 World Cup hampered its national team’s performance and eventually led to an early exit.
The 2020 champions left for Zimbabwe on January 6 and their warm-up match against Pakistan in Masvingo was scheduled for January 10.
It began a four-hour journey to Harare for a practice match against Scotland on January 13, when both matches were abandoned due to rain.
Interestingly, the ICC banned domestic air travel during this year’s tournament, resulting in Bangladesh traveling from Harare to Bulawayo – a nearly nine-hour journey in the rainy season – by bus for the first two group-stage matches against India and New Zealand respectively.
To prevent player fatigue, the BCB organized and funded an internal flight to Bulawayo for group-level matches, development coordinator Habibul Bashar told the Bangladesh News Agency during an interview.
“I think our calculations (against England and India) are lower than the approach. But this (tour schedule) is what I want to highlight, even if people think I’m making excuses,” Bashar was quoted as saying.
“To avoid the boys getting too tired before the India match, BCB actually paid for the internal flight from its own pocket as the bus journey was too long and direct flights were few and far between,” he added.
After the first two group stage matches, Bangladesh traveled by bus to Harare on 23 January for a match against the United States (USA) and back to Bulawayo by bus on 26 January for the first Super Six match against England, who were eliminated in the semi-final race.
Having already been eliminated from the semi-finals, Bangladesh will return to Harare for the final Super Sixers match against co-hosts Zimbabwe, scheduled for Saturday.
“The schedule is very unfair for us. During the initial schedule, we have to play two practice games in Masvingo and travel to Bulawayo, a four-hour drive, for our opening two group-stage matches,” Bashar continued.
“Then, they (ICC) suddenly changed the schedule, which meant we had to play our two practice matches at different venues, traveling back and forth,” he added.
Bashar also requested the ICC to change their practice matches, but the governing body did not listen to their request.
“We informed them (about the travel burden) before the tournament. We asked them to move our practice games to avoid traveling back and forth, but they didn’t listen. Once the tournament starts, you can’t really change these things.”