Bangladesh board to know about Indian tour in a week

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has said that it will know in a week whether their team's tour of India in October will take place within the next few months. Ali Asghar, the BCB chief, said that there was still hope that the series could be held at a later time after the Indian board (BCCI) had earlier postponed the tour because the schedule coincided with the ICC Super Series and two religious festivals. This was the second time that the BCCI delayed a tour that was originally scheduled to take place in April, and the decision evoked much criticism.

"The Indian officials told me that they have a busy international schedule, but we have requested them to find a suitable time to accommodate the series," said Asghar, quoted in The Daily Star. "SK Nair, the BCCI secretary, promised me that they will clear their position within a week."

India is the only nation that Bangladesh have not toured as yet for a Test series, and Ashgar said that this tour was important because it would mean that Bangladesh would have had the experience of touring all the Test-playing nations. "I told them to split the one-day series and the Test series if needed, like they had done for Sri Lanka who will play seven ODIs in India in October before returning again for the Tests," he added. "We are ready to tour twice if required."

Ashgar also said that during his visit to India he attended an Afro-Asian Cricket Council meeting to discuss the three-match one-day series between Asia XI and Africa XI to be held in South Africa in August. "[In] the meeting [we] decided to form a four-member selection committee to pick the Asian side. The selector must be a person who is not part of a board's selection panel and he must be a former Test player," said Asghar. "I have requested them to bend the criteria a little as we do not have too many experienced options to choose from among ex-Test cricketers. We will discuss our candidate tomorrow [Monday]."

Majid Khan,the former Pakistan batsman , will be Pakistan's representative on the panel and Ravi Shastri, the former Indian allrounder, will perform the role for India. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have not yet named their selectors.