Fresh doubts emerge over India's Bangladesh tour

Has the Bangladesh-India series run into a fresh roadblock? Less than two weeks ago, there were indications that the six-match white-ball series would go ahead, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), as first reported by Cricbuzz on July 1, even issued a tender notification inviting bids for the media rights. But 13 days on, the series appears to have been pushed to the back burner, with the BCB seemingly putting the process on hold.

On July 1, the BCB put the television and digital media rights for the series up for sale, stating that the bidding process would be completed by July 22. However, it did not release the Expression of Interest (EoI) documents, leaving interested broadcasters - mainly in India - wondering whether the series would happen at all.

"We have not issued the EoI documents because there has been a slight change in plans. We are now assessing the market before inviting bids," a BCB source told Cricbuzz in Dhaka. "It is not true that we are withholding the EoI documents because of the India series."

There are multiple theories doing the rounds about why the process has suddenly stalled. One suggests that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was not too pleased that the BCB put the media rights up for sale without prior discussions. Another believes that discussions may have taken place between officials of the two boards in Edinburgh, Scotland, where they had gathered for the ICC Annual Conference.

The BCB had, in fact, released the schedule for the India series some time ago, with three T20Is and as many ODIs scheduled to be played between August 1 and 13.

The series has always been under a cloud because of the diplomatic frost between the two countries, particularly last year. However, hopes were raised when India appointed Dinesh Trivedi as its ambassador to Bangladesh last month. The fact that the ambassador is a career politician rather than a career diplomat added to the optimism.

It may be too early to draw conclusions either way about the series, but there appear to be some roadblocks to the Indian team's travel to Bangladesh.

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