The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is trying to convince the government to relax the quarantine rules for Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, the board's CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said Saturday.

Shakib and Mustafiz returned home from India on Thursday, and are under a 14-day institutional quarantine in Dhaka.

Both players were playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was suspended as some cricketers had tested positive for Covid-19.

Although the government's Covid protocol requires all the inbound passengers to go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine period, the general protocol is not supposed to apply to athletes, Nizamuddin said.

Also read: Shakib, Mustafizur return to Dhaka

"We are not expecting any special arrangement or privilege for Shakib and Mustafiz. The Covid protocol followed by our country is for general people. But it is different for the international players.

"The general protocol is for people who come to the country by passenger flight after receiving a Covid negative certificate, but Shakib and Mustafiz returned home in a chartered flight and maintained a tight protocol," the BCB CEO added.

He also said the board was working closely with the health authority to minimise the quarantine period of these two cricketers.

The BCB earlier urged the health authority to reduce the period of quarantine for them, but the Directorate General of Health Services declined the request.

Also read: 14-day quarantine must for Shakib, Mustafizur

The Tigers are scheduled to play a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka starting May 23.

If the authority stays firm to not reduce the quarantine period of Shakib and Mustafiz, the players will have to stay in institutional quarantine till May 19. This means they will get only four days to practice ahead of the series.

The Tigers recently played a two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and lost it 1-0.

Bangladesh's last ODI series was in New Zealand where they lost the series 3-0 to the hosts.