A file photo from June 20, 2019 shows Bangladesh captain Mashrafee bin Murtaza reacting during their ICC World Cup match against Australia in Nottingham. — AFP photo
A Bangladesh Cricket Board official on Tuesday informed that they were yet to make any decision over Mashrafee bin Murtaza’s farewell match as they are currently paying their full concentration on hosting the tri-nation Twenty20 international series against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
‘Until now we are discussing and communicating on the tri-nation series [Twenty20] along with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe,’ BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters in Mirpur after being asked about Mashrafee’s farewell match.
Mashrafee’s retirement and farewell issue became a matter of discussion after BCB president Nazmul Hasan expressed their interest of hosting a one-day international series at home to bid a great farewell to the 35-year old cricketer.
Mashrafee had a dismal performance with the ball in the ICC World Cup in England and Wales where he could take only one wicket while conceding 361 runs in eight matches and was criticised heavily for not inspiring the team with his own performance.
The Tigers are not scheduled to compete in any ODI match in the next 10 months and it was previously learnt that the BCB might invite any of the low-ranked side to tour Bangladesh for an ODI series to offer Mashrafee a grand farewell at home.
Bangladesh’s next ODI series will be against Ireland in May-June next year when the Tigers will tour Ireland for a three-match ODI series alongside one Test and three Twenty20 internationals and they won’t be hosting a one-day series until December 2020 when Sri Lanka will arrive for a three-match series.
Mashrafee, who expressed his interest of continuing in one-day internationals for few more months, had to skip Bangladesh’s recent tour of Sri Lanka after he sustained a hamstring injury at the eleventh hour of team’s departure to the island nation.
Bangladesh conceded a massive hammering in that series as they lost all three matches and suffered a clean-sweep in the absence of some notable cricketers alongside Mashrafee, like Sakib al Hasan, Liton Das and Mohammad Saifuddin.
Nizamuddin also informed that they were not losing their hope of hosting Zimbabwe in the tri-nation Twenty20 series as they were hoping to get confirmation of participation from Zimbabwe Cricket within one to two days’ time.
‘We are expecting that Zimbabwe will come,’ Nizamuddin said.
‘I think it will be finalised within one to two days and you will get informed about it… we will play the series be it T20 or one-day international,’ he added.
‘At first we will play the lone Test match against Afghanistan [September 5]. After that we will play the tri-nation or bilateral ODI or Twenty20 series. The series will start in the first week of September….If Afghanistan makes the confirmation then it will be a Twenty20 series,’ he added.
Earlier last month, Bangladesh’s plan to host a tri-nation Twenty20 tournament involving Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in September suffered a jolt after the International Cricket Council suspended Zimbabwe Cricket from their events with immediate effect.
The ban was imposed as Zimbabwe government suspended the cricket board citing irregularities and created a governing body to run the board.
The series was previously scheduled to take place in between September 14 to 23.
Source: New Age.
