No D/N Tests before domestic trials: BCB

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) clarified their rationale behind not agreeing to New Zealand Cricket's (NZC's) proposal to play what would have been Bangladesh's first day-night Test during their tour of New Zealand in February 2019.

According to BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the board has refused on the grounds that they have not played day-night longer version cricket in the domestic circuit for six years.

After India's tour of New Zealand ends on February 10, the hosts will take on Bangladesh for three ODIs, with the first being on February 13, followed by a three-Test series -- the first time that the two countries will play more than two Tests in a series. 

Bangladesh last toured New Zealand in the 2016-17 season. It will only be Bangladesh's fourth three-Test series having last played a series of that length when they hosted Zimbabwe in 2014.

The Test series has been scheduled to start from February 28. The NZC proposed to BCB to play the first Test of the series in Hamilton as a day-night fixture. However, according to a release from NZC, BCB did not agree to play a day-night fixture and as a result NZC was forced to re-schedule the first Test to the traditional hours of play.

"NZC had hoped to schedule the opening Bangladesh Test at Seddon Park as a day-night fixture but could not obtain the agreement from the Bangladesh Cricket Board and was forced to revert to the traditional hours-of-play," an NZC release said.

"We have expressed the reason for not participating in a day-night Test match against New Zealand in the upcoming tour. We need to experiment with day-night matches in our first-class competitions first, but due to a lack of time with the Tigers' packed scheduled until February, with no first-class competition on the cards, we couldn't accept the proposal," Nizamuddin told The Daily Star yesterday.

However Nizamuddin added that the BCB understood the reality of playing day-night Test matches in the future.

"I will give a proposal to the board in the upcoming meeting on the steps to be taken in domestic cricket to reach a stage where we can play day-night Tests in the future," he added.

It is understood that the BCB is positive about the issue but the board is more keen to play its maiden day-night Test at home rather than abroad.

It has been more than six years since the BCB hosted its first and only day-night first-class match in the final of the inaugural Bangladesh Cricket League.

Bangladesh and India are the only two regular Test playing nations yet to play a day-night Test. The two newest Test teams Afghanistan and Ireland are also yet to play a day-night Test.

So far a total of 11 day-night Tests have taken place with the inaugural match taking place between Australia and New Zealand in 2015 in Adelaide, which the hosts won by three wickets.