Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has attempted to formulate a new comprehensive plan for the national team’s players so that they can smoothly return to cricket with proper fitness after the end of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, report agencies.
They named the planning “COVID-19 Exit Strategy” whose initial draft has been done with the help of the national team’s strength and conditioning coach Julian Calefato and BCB head of physical performance Nicolas Trevor Lee coupled with BCB medical.
BCB chief physician Dr Debashis Chowdhury confirmed to The Independent over mobile phone about the newly-planned ‘COVID-19 Exit Strategy’ for the national team’s cricketers yesterday.
Chowdhury said the plan is yet to finalize because they are still talking about its time frame. But it’ll be prepared whether it’s for two and a half months or one and a half months which will be finalized by tomorrow (Tuesday).
“We’ve initially a guideline to the players to follow what they will do during the lockdown period of the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s not enough for the players to maintain their fitness. As the lockdown period has now increased, uncertainty has also been increased. We don’t know how much people will affect and how much it’ll last,” said Dr Debashis.
“Already we’ve decided to change our plan for the extension of the timeframes. We’re trying to devise a comprehensive plan for how the players will return to the games. It’s not possible to abruptly come. They have to come through a process. It’s a matter of two and half-a-months to make them ready. In the initial one month, they’ll do reconditioning themselves. They’ll then go through a specific cricketing movement in the next one and half-a-months. A plan is being done for two and half-a-months,” Chowdhury told this reporter.
“We’ve no games before September. The National Cricket League (NCL) is held towards the end of September. There is nothing held in the country during the rainy season. The national team frequently makes tours in overseas countries. Normally no big event is held here. If we target the NCL in September, we’ll have remained some more time in our hands to introduce the 2.5-month-long reconditioning plan,” he added.
“But if anything happens before the period, we’ve to change our plan or shorten our plan. We’re not talking about it. So, we’re yet to make it ready for which time we’ll prepare our plan for two and a half months or one and a half months and how will be the plan. If there is no other event, we’ll do it for two and half-a-months so that they can be ready for the games in September. It’s a general guideline for the players.”
“But if there is any foreign tour, it’ll be a different case. Nothing is finalized yet. The discussion is going on. It’ll be finalized by tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said further.
