Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan returned from a successful International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai yesterday, where it was confirmed that Bangladesh will host the Asia Cup and the previously announced home series against Sri Lanka will go on as planned. The BCB boss added that Pakistan were interested in coming to Bangladesh and that they would have additional security during the Asia Cup tournament if needed.
“Pakistan has now said they want to come. But they are worried about their security. They asked me if we can give them additional security. I told them that we will give all the teams the topmost security. If your security personnel ask us to increase the security, we will provide that. Till yesterday, their appearance in Bangladesh was uncertain. After talking to them in Dubai, it seems they will try to come,” said Nazmul.
The PCB has also confirmed sending their representative for the security briefing in Dhaka on January 2014and the BCB president is confident after the ICC meeting that Pakistan are likely to come. “I basically think that we have done what we needed to do till now. We needed to make them understand that they should come here to play. This was our major challenge. To be honest, the situation was such that there was a possibility of them not coming,” he said.
However Nazmul Hasan warned about such incidents like the bomb blast near the team hotel of the West Indies U-19 side and urged the political parties, government, media and the general public to see that such incidents should not occur again.
“We have done our part but now it is the political parties. The government, media and the general public have to take the responsibility. We have discussed yesterday how this is the biggest World Cup, with 26 teams. There are so many tournaments lined up. This is a very important time in Bangladesh. If a small incident occurs, causing teams to avoid playing here, our cricket will be set back by 15-20 years and destroy our cricket,” said Nazmul.
Nazmul added that the Sri Lankan cricket board had requested skipping playing in Sylhet since there is a lot of travel for one ODI, but it has not been finalised, “SLC have asked whether it is possible to skip Sylhet, because it is a lot of travel for one ODI. You must have read it in Cricinfo, but it has not been finalized,” he said.
Nazmul Hasan also confessed that the Sri Lanka series was a vital one for the BCB and if the Sri Lanka side declined to participate in the Asia Cup, the World T20 might be moved to another country. “If the Asia Cup isn’t held here, the World Twenty20 wouldn’t take place. If Sri Lanka didn’t come here, there was a big chance for the Asia Cup to be moved. All of these tournaments are connected. The biggest challenge was Asia Cup because Pakistan had an objection,” he explained.
However, Nazmul informed that Bangladesh hosting the Asia Cup has been confirmed and as a result, there was no possibility of shifting the World T20.
