The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Friday heaved a sigh of relief as England confirmed that their scheduled tour to Bangladesh in October will go ahead as planned.
The England and Wales Cricket Board gave the confirmation on late Thursday that ended months long speculation regarding the fate of the series comprising with two Tests and three one-day internationals.
‘We can confirm that @englandcricket’s tour of Bangladesh will continue as planned,’ said a statement on the ECB’s official Twitter feed.
The future of the tour was thrown into doubt after the terror attack at a Gulshan cafe last month killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.
An ECB delegation, led by security adviser Reg Dickason, accompanied by director of cricket operations John Carr and David Leatherdale of the Professional Cricketers’ Association recently visited Bangladesh to make their own security assessment.
Following their return and going through their assessment, ECB announced to play against Tigers as per schedule in October and November.
England players — including Test captain Alastair Cook and one-day captain Eoin Morgan — received a briefing on Thursday from Dickason.
ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss, Leatherdale and Carr, as well as ECB chief executive Tom Harrison accompanied Dicakson during the briefing, according to reports.
Following the meeting Strauss, a former England captain, said: ‘England’s tour of Bangladesh will continue as planned.
‘Safety and security of players and management are always paramount. We’ve received a thorough risk assessment, had excellent insight into the current situation and been fully briefed on security commitments,’ said Strauss.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan on Friday thanked England for going ahead with the series.
‘Wherever I went [last few days] people always asked me if England would come and now I am so happy that England are coming,’ a relived Nazmul told reporters in a hastily arranged press conference at his residence.
‘I think 160 million people were eagerly waiting for this news. They were really concerned and now their players were answered.’
Nazmul said he was confident about the visitor’s arrival as they are not a nation to bow down against terrorist attack.
‘I always had a hunch that England would come and there are a few reasons for that. England always sent their team, even though Australia didn’t send. Even in India, they continued playing,’ said Nazmul.
‘So England is not a team that bows their head down towards terrorist activities,’ he added.
Nazmul said that he had full faith in the security plan provided for the series while added that BCB would even take up the responsibility to provide security of the visiting media and fans if they expressed the desire.
‘The security plan that we gave them I don’t think any other board provides such a security,’ said Nazmul.
‘Earlier this year we handled so many people during the Under-19 World Cup, I don’t think it will be difficult to handle one team for our security agencies,’ he said.
‘We will make sure that not just the players, the fans, the family members, the reporters – if they let us know where they stay and they contact us – we will arrange security for them.
‘This is the kind of mental readiness we have. We believe that there won’t be any problem with regards to this England tour,’
Barmy army had contacted us and we immediately contacted the high commission, I told them that please see that their visas aren’t delayed.
‘We also told him to give us the list of people coming so that we can help them out,’ he added.
-With New Age input
