We are not touring Sri Lanka immediately- Nazmul
Photo- BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
The Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan said on Saturday that there is no possibility of touring in near future as they are wary of their security crisis.
Bangladesh was expected to tour Sri Lanka in July to play three ODIs that was primarily scheduled on July 25, 27 and 29 but according to the BCB boss that looks close to impossible.
BCB was also expected to send their Bangladesh A team for a bilateral series in September.
According to BCB president Nazmul they are monitoring the security situation in Sri Lanka following last month's serial blasts in Sri Lanka which left over 300 people dead and many more injured while they are cautious after Pakistan Under-19 tour in Sri Lanka was postponed for indefinite period.
‘’There is no way we can send our team to Sri Lanka with the prevailing security condition and we are taking these things into consideration,’’ Nazmul told reporters during an impromptu press conference at his residence on Saturday.
‘’We had several programs with them as we were expected to send our junior and senior cricket team there, now they have given us invitation because they are going to start the Sri Lankan cricket league, all of these are going on.
‘’But we have to keep in mind that the security condition of Sri Lanka doesn’t permit us to travel there now. Not only Bangladesh, I don’t think any other team won’t be considering about traveling to Sri Lanka in this condition,’’ he said.
The most concerning fact is that even their president has told us that there is another possibility of terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. As they have said that there is a possibility of terrorist attack, so we are not thinking about having a tour in Sri Lanka just now,’’ he said.
‘’If the situation calms down and they give us the assurance that nothing bad will happen and most important if our security gives us the clearance only then we can think about a tour in Sri Lanka,’’ he said.
‘’There is no possibility of our team going there [on immediate future],’’ he said.
‘’ If our own intelligence gives us the assurance then there is a chance but we are not thinking about Sri Lanka tour now,’’ he added.
In March, Bangladesh's tour of New Zealand was called off immediately after a terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques. Most members of the touring party were nearly caught in the crosshairs after they arrived at the Al Noor Mosque, the site of one of the attacks, just minutes after the shooter had left the scene.
Nazmul said that their security team will properly assess the security of countries they are expected to tour in the future as they are trying to avoid a repeat of the Christchurch situation.
