England to go ahead with Bangladesh tour

LONDON: England are to go ahead with their tour of Bangladesh, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed Thursday.

"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 when an attack in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, saw 20 hostages killed, including nine Italian citizens, with the Islamic State group claiming responsibility.

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, the ECB said Thursday that the three one-day internationals and two Tests which England are due to play in Bangladesh in October and November before heading to India were set to go ahead as scheduled.

England players -- including Test captain Alastair Cook and One-Day captain Eoin Morgan -- received a briefing Thursday from longstanding security chief Dickason, accompanied by ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss, Leatherdale and Carr, as well as Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive.