Former England skipper Nasser Hussain says he feels that as ODI captain, Eoin Morgan should be with his team in the forthcoming Bangladesh tour.
Deciding to pull out for security reasons is individual decision, but Hussain says it is different for a captain.
“As a leader you should either be trying to convince your team and the ECB that it is not right to travel or, if the decision is made that the team should travel, then you should go yourself,” he wrote in a
Sportsmail column on Monday.
Morgan and opener Alex Hales decided not to tour Bangladesh over security concerns although ECB's security delegation deemed it safe after risk assessment. England are scheduled to arrive on Sept 30 for three ODIs and two Tests.
Security concerns were raised after terrorists killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, at a Dhaka cafe on July 1.
Hussain wrote: “Eoin Morgan has always been his own man but an England captain cannot stand by and watch his players do something he is not prepared to do himself.”
Morgan cites a 2010 incident when a bomb went off in Bangalore near a site when he was playing in the Indian Premier League. That incident, however, has not stopped him from continuing to play the IPL, Hussain noted.
Hussain feels that Morgan's decision would “undermine his authority”.
He recalled England tour of India after 9/11 attack when they were faced with similar situation. “...It never entered my mind that my team should go there without me,” he writes.
English Test batting coach Mark Ramprakash is in favour of the tour. “Bangladesh needs Test cricket and we should help them as much as we can,” he told the Guardian.
Hussain says he will be in Bangladesh to cover England's tour and that he has no reservations about it, noting that any of us could be under threat anywhere in the world.
“The bottom line is that if the team is going, if the ECB deem it safe, then the captain should be there.”
