BCB not in favor of cricketing ties with Pakistan in near future
Bilateral cricketing ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh appeared to have taken a beating following the former’s decision to defer the tour of Bangladesh. While dismissing any ties between the two senior teams in the near future, Nazmul Hasan, the BCB chief, has categorically ruled out tours of Bangladesh’s High Performance and Under-19 teams to Pakistan, stating that alternative arrangements have been put in place.
“We haven’t spoken about going to Pakistan since we heard their decision from the media,” Hassan said on Saturday (May 27). “The national team (undertaking a trip to Pakistan) is out of the question. Our HP or U-19 (teams) might have gone there but when they made this announcement, we are no longer in talks. After this, there is no question of talking about the HP tour.
“They will go elsewhere. We have confirmed programmes with New Zealand and England. We are in talks with two more countries. Within a couple of months, we will be releasing the specific schedules. Many of these series will be held at home,” he added.
Following BCB’s decision against touring Pakistan for a two-match Twenty20 International series due to security reasons, PCB retaliated by putting off the national team’s tour of Bangladesh for at least a year. Pakistan were scheduled to play a full series, comprising two Tests, three One-Day Internationals and one T20I in July-August this year.
With the PCB backing out, the BCB chief said it would serve as a good resting period for the Bangladesh team ahead of the home Test series against Australia in August-September, which will be followed by the tour to South Africa in September-October and the Bangladesh Premier League towards the end of the year.
“I think we can rest our players during that time. Our boys are playing a lot these days. From Champions Trophy they’ll come home, play against Australia and then head off to South Africa. From there, they will come home and start with the BPL, and then they have more cricket.
“I am not too keen about the Pakistan tour. But if we need to play [in that time], we have four or five countries lined up to play against Bangladesh. It won’t be hard to arrange matches, but right now we are not really keen on filling that gap either,” Hasan said.
NEWS from CricBUZZ.
