The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon said the players showed their reluctance to visit Pakistan since their parents, relatives and well-wishers expressed concerns over the security.
In the wake of the situation, the BCB boss said, they are still trying to send the team for T20 series only but they are not sure how many players will reciprocate with the decision. At the same time, the BCB is not sure whether the government eventually gives the green signal for the tour even for the short series only.
He said he collected the information after talking to the players, coaching staffs and other stakeholders individually.
According to him, after talking to the players and coaching staffs, he got the idea that there is no chance they would go to Pakistan for full tour or Test series but they may consider to tour there for a short period.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) earlier said that they won’t compromise with the issue of taking the Test series to neutral venue.
Bangladesh is scheduled to tour Pakistan in January-February for a three-match T20 and two-match Test series, which is the part of World Test Championship.
Bangladesh had already let the PCB know about their decision to tour there for T20 series only while they want their Pakistan counterpart to arrange the two-match Test series in any neutral venue.
“After talking to the players and coaching staffs, what I understood that there is no opportunity [to tour there for Test series]” Papon said here on Thursday.
“We have already let them know what we want. We told them that we want to play T20 only, I mean we trying to send our T20 team. If they agree, we can try to realize the government’s clearance. It’s not the issue of board because the issue like security is involved here, so the government will say the last,” he said.
He continued: “Apart from government’s clearance, there is a issue that whether coaching staffs and players will agree with the tour. We need to form a good T20 team. If we can form a good T20 team, we’ll send the team. We are supposed to get government clearance without one or two days after which we’ll give the final decision.”
Papon, however, has no hesitation to admit that the PCB is very sincere about the security but the thing is that he doesn’t want to take any risk at this moment and therefore he said, Bangladesh wants to tour to Pakistan for T20 series only for the time being.
“There is no doubt about their security system. The feedback that we got [from the security agency] is that the security system is good. Our Women’s team and aged level team toured there and they also gave positive feedback about security,” the BCB chief remarked.
“But our coaching staffs are completely reluctant to go. Someone said they may go for just short visit. As I said earlier, the players said that their parents, relative and friends are very concerned and requested them not to go,” he added.
