Bangladesh refuses to tour Pakistan over security reasons

Citing security concerns, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Monday refused to visit Pakistan for a bilateral series.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had earlier announced on December 17 that it will tour Pakistan to play cricket matches on January 12 and 13. However, in a press conference, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said the team will not tour Pakistan due to security reasons.

He said that during the meeting of the cricket board held on Sunday, it was decided that their team will not visit Pakistan due to security concerns. He noted, “We’ve made the decision after considering the overall security situation in Pakistan and the concern that our people have expressed over the safety of their players.”

Foreign teams have refused to tour Pakistan since an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009, which left eight people dead and seven Sri Lankan players wounded. The attack pushed Pakistan into a cricket exile as the national team was forced to play their home series at neutral venues in the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand and England.

Bangladesh had earlier accepted an invitation to tour Pakistan last April for a short limited-over series but the Dhaka High Court blocked the tour on security grounds.

Pakistan Cricket Board’s chairman Zaka Ashraf had said that the BCB would lose its reputation worldwide if it decides against sending its team to Pakistan.

He further added that they had supported the BCB in every aspect, especially with respect to Mustafa Kamal’s appointment as the ICC’s vice president, and that he did not expect the BCB to pull out of the tour at the last moment.

Ashraf also pointed out towards the Bangladeshi Premier League issue stating that the Pakistani players were still not cleared to play the league.

Talking about the security issues, Ashraf said that there were no security issues within Pakistan and that the BCB’s officials had visited Pakistan earlier and had found the security issues satisfactory.

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Posted by Web Desk on Dec 31 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.