Dhaka — The chief executive officer of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Sunday said they are working on security assessment ahead of Bangladesh’s scheduled tour to Pakistan early next year. As per the future tour plan (FTP) of International Cricket Council (ICC), Bangladesh have a tour to Pakistan to play a two-match Test series and a three-match T20I series in January-February 2020. But the series will go ahead only if the security assessment of BCB is done in a positive manner.
“We’ve a commitment to touring Pakistan for a two-match Test and three-match T20I series. We’ve been working on it with the related government agencies,” BCB CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury told the media on Sunday.
“We forwarded the report from Bangladesh high commission in Pakistan to the government. I think a security inspection team will tour to Pakistan soon. Since Sri Lanka are touring Pakistan now, it will be easy for our team to observe their ground security arrangement during this series. It’ll help us to understand the current situation of Pakistan,” Nizam Uddin added.
Before the tour of Bangladesh national men’s team, women’s team is also scheduled to tour Pakistan on October 23 and the series is already finalized.
“We’re hopeful about a security assessment before the tour of our women team. It will help us getting a circumstantial idea about the situation in Pakistan,” Nizam Uddin further said.
During Sri Lanka’s Pakistan tour in 2009, a terrorist group attacked Sri Lankan cricketers and six cricketers were wounded. Since then, no team visited Pakistan to play Test match. During the last decade, Pakistan hosted four ODIs and nine T20Is till the date. West Indies, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka were the only teams to visited Pakistan in this period.
Despite hosting these matches, Pakistan’s image of week security situation was not developed as it was expected by the Pakistan authority. If Bangladesh tour Pakistan to play a Test in next January-February, it will be the first country to play a Test in Pakistan after that horrible terror attack.UNB
