Afghan ODIs to start at 2:30pm

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have confirmed that the three ODIs between Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be day-night encounters and are to commence at 2:30 pm. Afghanistan, who are scheduled to arrive this week, will play the three ODIs on September 25, 28 and October 1.

Until yesterday the timing of the matches was not known. However, BCB director Jalal Yunus confirmed that the games would in fact be day-night affairs. This series will be Bangladesh's first ODI series of the year.

The BCB's decision also means that Tigers will play a total of six day-night matches at home within the next two months as the ODI series against England is set to begin on October 7.

Yunus also said that the BCB would take strict security measures during the matches, similar to the ones put in place for the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in January.

“We are obviously taking the security issue very seriously. For the Afghanistan series the screenings will take place not just within the BCB's parameters but also outside of it,” said Yunus. 

During the Under-19 World Cup checkposts were set up at various junctions around the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

He also said that the security level provided to the Afghanistan team would be VVIP.

“We are confident that we will be able to host the two series successfully. We have handled such situations before. In 2014, the Sri Lanka series, the T20 World Cup and the Asia Cup took place and we barely had any gap in between. But we organised those events successfully. We are confident,” said Yunus.

The board director further added that tickets for the Afghanistan series would be launched soon: “As far as I know the tickets have already been printed and are ready to go on sale.”