Bangladesh ‘surprised’ by Pakistan’s tour cancellation

PCB chief says that the series against BD has been

postponed indefinitely by mutual consent

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket issues are seldom straight forward. Take the recent move of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to ‘postpone’ the national team’s tour of Bangladesh for example.

While Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, has announced that his country’s tour of Bangladesh has been postponed with mutual consent, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has negated his claim and has instead expressed its surprise over PCB’s move.

Shaharyar said on Thursday that Pakistan team’s scheduled visit to Bangladesh this summer has been postponed for at least a year after the Bangladeshis refused to reciprocate the tour because of security fears.

Pakistan were due to play two Tests, three One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 match in Bangladesh in July and August.

The country has been forced to host most of its matches overseas after an attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009, barring a limited over series against Zimbabwe in 2015.

Security has improved over the past two years and some foreign players have tentatively endorsed returning.

But Shaharyar said Bangladesh had turned down the invitation.

According to AFP, Shaharyar had spoken to Bangladesh cricket board representatives on the sidelines of an International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai, and “decided to postpone the series for one or two years”.

“But we will definitely play them,” Shaharyar said.

“We toured Bangladesh in 2012 and 2015 without Bangladesh reciprocating so we hope they will discuss further and find a solution,” he said.

When Pakistan last toured Bangladesh in 2015 they demanded a share of the revenue, and were reportedly paid $325,000 by the hosts.

Since the suspension of international cricket Pakistan have been forced to play all their home series in the neutral venues of the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, PCB decision to call off their tour of Bangladesh in July and August has taken the BCB by surprise, though the board said it was yet to receive official communication from the PCB.

“We are really surprised. Even a month ago we knew that the tour was on,” BCB’s media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said. “There was a discussion between both board chiefs during this week’s ICC meeting in Dubai. This upcoming series was ours to host according to the FTP. In 2015 the two boards went into a deal that we will play two series for the following two years in Bangladesh.

“There was even a financial issue, which was dealt with at the time. They said they wanted to play here [in Bangladesh] till 2017. They wanted Bangladesh to play two T20s in Pakistan before continuing the series here. We don’t want to play there. We want to stick to our schedule, which has the whole series being played in Bangladesh.”

Yunus said the BCB had learned of the PCB’s decision through the media. “If the series does get officially cancelled, we have to go into discussion with them. We have cleared the financial issues so there’s no need to talk about those things now. We haven’t heard anything from them in official correspondence. We heard it through the media that they want to cancel the tour.”

Bangladesh last toured Pakistan in 2007-08, for a five-ODI series. Since then, Pakistan have toured Bangladesh twice, in 2011-12 and 2015. They PCB said it was cancelling this year’s tour because Bangladesh had not reciprocated with a return visit.

If the tour is off, Bangladesh will have a break in July this year, because their next fixtures after the Champions Trophy in June is a proposed home series against Australia in late August.