CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

June 29: Cricket fans in Bangladesh are in for a Winter of treat as several major international teams are expected to make their appearance at Dhaka and other venues across the country. Countries attending the ICC annual conference last week have ``committed to provide Bangladesh with an intense programme of 3 and 4 day 'A' and national team cricket over the next nine months to assist in their high performance development''.

Meetings held over the weekend and on Monday, and attended by BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury, could not finalise any itinerary of the visits or the tours.

The package, that all but constitutes a ``pre-condition'' on Bangladesh Cricket Board before the International Cricket Council grants it Test status, will provide Bangladeshi cricketers more exposure to the longer version of the game against stronger (Test) sides, and will also include a tour by Bangladesh to those countries.

Bangladesh, trying desperately to become a Test-playing nation at ICC's consent before the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, were denied by two votes at last Thursday's annual general meeting at Lord's. Five Test-playing countries and the full quota of 25 associate member-countries voted for Bangladesh.

It is recognised that to woo the required at least two more votes from the remaining four Test-countries, Bangladesh would have to gain more experience and credibility in longer version of the game, both domestically and internationally.

To this end BCB has already introduced long-term league matches in the Dhaka league from the last season and now the international calendar is a step in the right direction.

The Test status, or full membership of ICC, can be a great boon for the development of the game in any country. But, as an added bonus, a Test nation automatically qualifies for the four-yearly World Cup.

Bangladesh qualified to play in this year's World Cup by virtue of becoming champions of the 1997 ICC Trophy, a competition among the associate members, held at Kuala Lumpur.

The ICC trophy at Toronto in July 2001 will be enlarged to 26 teams with the promotion of Germany to Associate Member status. Cyprus, Morocco and Qatar were admitted into the ICC fold as Affiliate Members, bringing the total number of members to 56.

The number of countries qualifying for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa will be decided at next year' s ICC conference.

There are four new umpires on the National Grid Panel: A. Jayprakesh (India), Riazuddin (Pakistan), A. Zaidi (Pakistan) and B. Cooray (Sri Lanka).

New on the referees panel are: former Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam and countryman N. Ali, and New Zealand's Brian Hastings.

Sri Lanka will host the U-19 World Cup in January 2000. Besides the nine Test nations, seven teams will be selected from among the 26 Associate Members. The seven will be selected on a regional basis - two from the European tournament to be held in Ireland next month, two from the Asian Cricket Council tournament in Singapore early July, two from Africa and one from the Americas.