BCB disappointed by Cricket Australia's decision

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has been greatly disappointed by Australia’s reluctance to host Bangladesh national team. Cricket Australia (CA) has recently postponed the bilateral series – that was scheduled to take place in August this year – by questioning its financial viabilities.

According to BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury, not every series hosted by Bangladesh benefit the board financially and yet they stuck to their bilateral commitments. He expects all nations should do the same when it comes to maintaining bilateral commitments.

“It is disappointing,” said Nizamuddin. “They looked at how financially viable the series will be for them, which is disappointing. Many of our home series aren’t necessarily beneficial.

“We have to host a lot of countries to maintain bilateral commitments. It is not always financially viable. If the BCB can afford them, then we would expect the bigger cricket boards to do the same.”

On the other hand, a CA spokesperson has claimed that the tour has been postponed by mutual agreement and they want to be “better aligned” ahead of the upcoming ICC World T20 in Australia.

The spokesperson said: “The window allocated in the ICC FTP for Bangladesh to tour Australia in August this year has been postponed, by mutual agreement by both Cricket Australia and the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

“Both countries agreed to postpone that tour to be better aligned ahead of the ICC World T20 in 2020 in Australia.”

The Bangladesh national team has been playing Test cricket for nearly 18 years now and not once have they had the opportunity to play against the Aussies in a bilateral series in Australia.

Australia had previously canceled a tour to Bangladesh in 2015 and did not allow their Under-19s to take part in the U-19 World Cup in the Asian country in 2016 citing security concerns.

Former Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim voiced his desire to play Test cricket down under. Except for the 2015 ICC World Cup, he never got the chance to play in Australia. Moreover, the only match that the Tigers could have played against the home team in that tournament eventually got washed out.

Mushfiqur said, “It is up to the cricket boards. I don’t know why it got postponed. But we were really looking forward to it. We wanted to play in Australia.

“I have never played a bilateral series there. It would have been something quite big for me. If it happens in the future, I will be happy.”