T20 Canada tourney on cards for Tigers
http://www.newagebd.com/2008/jul/09/spt.html
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has tentatively agreed to send the national team to Canada next month for a four-nation Twenty20 tournament that also features Pakistan, West Indies and the hosts, officials said on Tuesday.
Sports International Marketing, a Pakistan-based event management company, which also has an office in UAE will organise the competition from August 14-17 in Toronto, the cricketing hub of Canada.
‘Primarily we agreed to participate in the competition. Now we are working on some financial aspects,’ Gazi Ashraf Hossain, the chairman of the cricket operations committee, told New Age after returning from Pakistan.
‘Hopefully, we will sign a memorandum of understanding with SIM within a day or two,’ said the BCB official, who was in Pakistan to attend the annual general meeting of the Asian Cricket Council during the Asia Cup.
Ashraf informed Board president Major General Sina Ibn Jamali last evening about the outcome of his discussion. The BCB official said the organisers have already taken the approval of the ICC for the tournament and signed an agreement with the Canadian authorities for using the ground facilities.
It was learnt that the Pakistan Cricket Board is actively supporting SIM to organise the event to cover their losses and fill the calendar following the postponement of their home series against Australia in April-May.
Bangladesh has been offered a lucrative financial package for the Canada tournament which officials have said was very difficult to refuse. But officials were still hesitating as it coincided with the Tigers’ tour of Australia in August-September. The Bangladesh team is scheduled to play a four-day match, three one-day matches as warm-up before meeting Australia in three one-day matches on August 31, September 3 and 6 at Darwin.
For the Twenty20 tournament, the BCB has decided to abridge the Australia tour and possibly the four-day will now be dropped from the schedule, officials hinted. The BCB is also pondering the idea of making flying arrangements of the Tigers from Canada to Australia.
‘We think this tournament will be good exposure for our team. The team also can be benefited from facing the Pakistan and West Indian bowlers in unknown conditions before the Australia tour,’ said Ashraf. It will be the first time Bangladesh will tour Canada. Pakistan will be playing in Canada also for first time in nine years since they defeated West Indies 3-0 in September 1999.