Bangladesh host A-team event

Details of the Afro-Asia A-team tournament hosted by Bangladesh in January have finally been announced.

The five-team event - which features sides from India, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya - is based in Chittagong and starts on January 18. All the sides will play each other once, with the top two meeting in the final at the M A Aziz Stadium on January 28.

There is some concern over whether Zimbabwe, who have named their side, will actually participate as most of their squad have said they will refuse to play under the current board. It is likely that they will hold a meeting shortly before they are due to depart to make a final decision.

There is also some unease with the criteria for what constitutes an A side, with the Zimbabwe team containing six of their most recent Test side and only three of their squad have not played Tests or ODIs.

Rather oddly, it appears that the organisers were hoping for an African Representative XI, based around Kenya and Uganda, to take the fifth slot but it seems that the Kenyans refused, arguing that as they had recently whitewashed Zimbabwe A in Zimbabwe, they deserved a place on their own merits.