Bangladesh looking to adapt to Pink Ball before playing Tests

What's the story?

Judging from the way issues have been spoken about by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, it now appears that it will take a time period of at least one year before the cricketing nation considers playing Day & Night Test matches. CEO of the board Mr. Nizam Chowdhury recently spoke to the press, clearing all doubts regarding the issue.

In case you didn't know...

Bangladesh and India remain the only Test-playing nations apart from Ireland and Afghanistan to not have played a day-night Test yet. Every other team, including Zimbabwe, have played day-night Test matches since their inception in 2015. Australia vs New Zealand was the first ever day-night game, followed by England vs West Indies last August, and South Africa vs Zimbabwe being the most recent of its kind, though it was just a four-day game.

In June, India was in news for dismissing Cricket Australia's request to play a day-night Test match in their upcoming tour. The BCCI had cited inexperience as a reason back then.

The details

Mr. Chowdhury believes that in order for Bangladesh to play in international day-night Test matches, they need to breed familiarity in the format beforehand, which according to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), will happen when they are able to host day-night first-class domestic matches successfully. Later, the board will consider the prospect of doing the same at international level, starting with hosting such games at home before venturing on foreign tours.

The discussions have arisen following New Zealand Cricket's statement from Tuesday, July 31, when they said that BCB has not agreed to play a day-night Test match against the Kiwis next February. It is known that the BCB has also declined a previous offer regarding the same, that New Zealand made in 2016.

Chowdhury explained that the board's latest decision was based on what the national players their management thought, following a discussion with them after NZC approached them. "We have been seeing it positively but since our players don't have an opportunity to play day-night matches in domestic longer-version tournaments, we felt that it wouldn't be right to play a day-night Test," he said while speaking to ESPN.

What's next?

The BCB looks to introduce the new format in domestic four-day tournaments, after which they intend to host an international game on their own before they will accept day-night match requests from other boards. They seem to follow the pattern of countries like Australia, England, Pakistan and West Indies who developed in the format in the same manner as above.

The board has now withheld from taking further steps regarding the matter as their players are away on tour. "We will hold discussions at the policy level at the board, as well as with the players when they return from West Indies," Chowdhury said.