Rajasthan Royals chairman Ranjit Barthakur along with his team of delegates visited the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today to ponder on formulating a cricketing ‘exchange program’ between Bangladesh and few states of India.
Ranjit, who said that he had been “very supportive of Bangladesh cricket” for a long time, also mentioned his prime purpose of the visit to Dhaka.
“First of all, I am very happy to be back here. Secondly, I am back here to see the stadium and to see how we can make any cooperation between Bangladeshi districts and North Eastern states and North Bengal. How we can have an exchange program for cricket so that we can flourish jointly as Eastern Himalayan territory rather than the territory of India and Bangladesh [seperately],” explained Ranjit to the media in Mirpur today.
Led by Ranjit, the Royals’ team of delegates reached the Mirpur stadium at around 2:00pm today. They were seen visiting all the facilities around the stadium while being accompanied by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) grounds committee manager Abdul Baten and chief curator Gamini De Silva. They also met BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury.
It was initially speculated that Rajasthan Royals might consider having their conditioning camp here in Bangladesh ahead of the upcoming IPL edition. Ranjit, however, ruled out any such possibilities citing travel restrictions due to Covid-19.
“We have bid for Fizz [Mustafizur Rahman] and hopefully he will play. But his duty to country is first and then for Rajasthan. I hope he gets selected for national team and if not, we are always there for him,” Ranjit said.
Ranjit also mentioned the possibility of establishing a Royals academy here sometime in the future.