Bangladesh Cricket Board media committee chairman Jalal Younus, who was closely monitoring the developments of the Australian team, believes if it wasn’t for the Australian government’s restriction, the five-time world champions would have surely toured Bangladesh.
However, Cricket Australia did promise to reschedule the series, which they declined citing security concerns, but it looks highly unlikely given their future tour programmes.
Australia will host New Zealand in November this year before West Indies and India travel down under in December and January respectively. The Aussies will then play away series’ against New Zealand and South Africa before arriving in India in March for the ICC World Twenty20.
“I have followed Cricket Australia for the last 10-12 days and know how they were dealing with the issue. My observation is, their body language showed they were eager to tour but the final decision had to be taken by the Australian government,” Jalal explained to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
“CA had no option but to postpone the tour. Their team is in transition and they have a new captain along with new players. I think they were looking forward to the tour and adjusting their team combination.”
In the meantime, BCB has proposed to host Zimbabwe during this “uncalled for” break in October and November. BCB is willing to break down the home series against Zimbabwe, who are already scheduled to tour Bangladesh in January for two Tests, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals, and play the Tests in November and complete the remaining formats in January.
Jalal also informed that there are no further issues or security concerns regarding hosting international events in Bangladesh as the country is all set for the ICC Under-19 World Cup in January next year.
“You see the security alert is only for the month of October. I am pretty much sure none of the future events, which involves international cricket or cricketers, will be hampered for this (Australia) issue,” said the BCB director.