Mumbai/Fatullah: With rain disrupting most of the play in the ongoing one-off Test between hosts Bangladesh and the Indian cricket team, led by newly appointed Test skipper Virat Kohli, questions are being raised on the scheduling of the series.
Read: No rest for Team India, packed schedule lies ahead
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might have probably misgauged Team India’s packed schedule while promising to play against other nations and only a tour to Bangladesh in the monsoon was left open.
Dark clouds loom over the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah. (Photo: AFP)
India had no room to accommodate a tour to the neighbouring country after the conclusion of the 47-day Indian Premier League extravaganza that culminated with Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians clinching the silverware for the second time after 2013. And if you include the tour Down Under, with the World Cup, the boys have certainly been on the go toiling hard.
Read: We are over playing players and are over performing them: Sports scientist Shayamal Vallabhjee
June then was the only option left, but it’s still a month in which the Tigers have never hosted a Test before. The outcome of this is that this Test has seen only 133.4 overs being bowled in four days with play being called off on the fourth day. And mind you, the second day passed without a single ball being bowled, thanks to the rain gods.
Another day's play gone. The monsoon is winning.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 13, 2015The Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rainfall for the rest of the match too, in Fatullah and it doesn’t get better over the course, with the three ODIs scheduled after the Test.
Read: Forecast for all matches between Bangladesh and India not encouraging
A report in the ESPCCricinfo mentioned that negotiations for this particular tour were being carried out in February when India, England and Australia were in the process of taking over the ICC.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board was one of the last boards to agree with this new distribution of power and therefore had few choices when it came to scheduling this tour.
Incessant rain has caused frustration in both the team camps in the ongoing one-off Test. (Photo: AFP)
The result of the Future Tours Programme being scrapped for a new system of scheduling — in which two boards would need to agree on a slot to play through the members' participation agreement (MPA) — was that the tour was reduced from two Tests and three ODIs to just one Test and three ODIs.
India and Bangladesh fell prey to a rain curtailed tour even in June 2014 too, when the third ODI was abandoned in the 35th over and the first two were also affected.
