Pakistan Cricket Board has assured of providing VVIP security measures to the Bangladesh women’s team who will fly to the terror-stricken country today. Salma Khatun and her troop will play two international Twenty20s alongside two one-day internationals in Karachi.
“There is no pressure on us to go to Pakistan and we are going on our own,” all-rounder Khatun told reporters yesterday. “The board took our opinion. We have been looking for an away tour as we did not play enough international cricket for sometime now. After the last Asian Games (in 2014) we have not played any matches, so we are eager to play some competitive cricket.
“Naturally our parents were concerned. We talked with them and convinced them.
“There is nothing risky in it because these kind of things happen in every country and not only in Pakistan,” she added.
Salma showed no concerns with the security measures in place and insisted on concentrating on the game only. “We have been training for the past two months or so though we were not confirmed about the tour earlier, but now we are going to Pakistan. I think we are ready for the tour and we are not going there to watch any sort of violence but to play cricket. We will only think about the game and playing better cricket will be our top priority,” she said.
No international cricket matches were played in Pakistan between 2009 and 2015 after a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in March, 2009.
The country’s six-year isolation ended when the Zimbabwe men’s side toured Pakistan in May-June this year for two Twenty20 internationals and three one-day internationals.
Bangladesh Cricket Board only agreed to send the women’s team last week after the visit of the four-member delegation earlier this month. The delegation later gave the green signal to the BCB.
“We were promised that the team would be given VVIP security, like the ones usually given to the president or the prime minister of a country,” team manager Shafiqul Haque said.