Dhaka — Bangladesh national cricket team’s Pakistan tour is still under cloud as Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan on Thursday said that the board is yet to get a positive response from the government to tour Pakistan.
He said that many of the national players are not agreed to go to Pakistan to play a full series.
In the proposed series, Bangladesh are scheduled to play a three-match T20I and two-match Test series against their sub-continental rivals.
“We have been facing several issues before finalizing the tour of Pakistan. There are a few numbers of stakeholders. We have to respect the opinions of every party before going to play a full series in Pakistan. At this moment, I don’t think we have a chance to tour Pakistan to play a Test series,” Nazmul Hassan told the media on Thursday at the BCB headquarters in Mirpur.
“We have to make sure that we secure the positive response from the government’s authorities. Before that, we have to talk to the players, coaching staff, and of course, we have to hear the final decision of the board. At the same time, we have to take the security situation of Pakistan under consideration. Our women’s team and Under-16 national team have toured Pakistan this year. So the security situation is not that bad. Despite that, there are some risks in playing in Pakistan,” Nazmul added.
Nazmul also said that most of the coaching staff is reluctant to tour Pakistan. However, some of the players and coaching staff have no objection touring Pakistan if it is for a shorter period of time, he added.
“But we have sent a response to Pakistan board saying that we are trying to tour Pakistan only for the three-match T20Is series. We told them to host the Test series in a neutral venue. We have got security clearance from some of the government’s authorities. We need to get more clearance which might arrive within two-three days. After securing all the government’s clearance, we will make the final decision,” Nazmul further told the media.
BCB proposed Pakistan to tour to play T20I series, albeit they didn’t get the security clearance from the respective government agencies, as Nazmul said, “We need to secure the clearance for T20I series. This is the first thing. We have decided to bring the members from Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and National Security Intelligence (NSI) along with our security personnel. Since it is our first Pakistan tour in more than a decade, we don’t want to take any risk.”
If Bangladesh remain firm on their decision, the Pakistan board might bring the issue on the table of the International Cricket Council (ICC). As the Test series of this tour is a part of World Test Championship, Bangladesh might face trouble if they deny the tour. However, Nazmul is not worried about this.
“We are not worried about this. The decision is our, we have to take our decision whether we want to go to Pakistan or not. We have to think about our players and coaching staff. So we are not worried about other things. We didn’t say that we won’t go. But since it is the first tour in years, there are some fears. We don’t want to force anyone to tour Pakistan,” Nazmul added.
“I expect Pakistan board will arrange a neutral venue for us as they did for the West Indies. I don’t think they have any problem to treat us like the West Indies,” he further told the media.UNB
