Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan on Thursday completely dismissed any chance of Bangladesh playing Tests in Pakistan despite continued pressure from the neighbouring cricket board.
‘I don’t see any chance of that happening at the moment. After discussing with the cricketers and the coaching staff, I don’t see any chance,’ Nazmul told reporters in Mirpur after being asked about the possibility of Bangladesh playing Tests in Pakistan.
BCB and the Pakistan Cricket Board have been embroiled in a war of words regarding Bangladesh’s scheduled bilateral series against Pakistan next month, where the teams are slated to play three Twenty20s and two Tests.
BCB, on December 21, revealed its intentions of wanting to send the national team to Pakistan only for Twenty20 matches and play the Tests at a neutral venue, to which the Pakistan cricket fraternity had an adverse reaction.
PCB chief Ehsan Mani on December 23 completely rejected the BCB’s proposal and declared that Pakistan will not host home Tests in a neutral venue for Bangladesh or any other countries.
The fate of the series came under further ambiguity after the BCB president reiterated the board’s stance of not playing Tests in the neighbouring country, saying that the main issue was not the security arrangement but the overall environment and the unwillingness of many players and coaching staff to tour Pakistan.
‘There is no reason to have any doubts about the security system provided by Pakistan... We are not worried about the security system. There are other issues,’ Nazmul said.
‘Many of the coaching staff has told us that they won’t go there. A few have said they are ready to go only for a short period. None of the foreign coaching staff have agreed to travel there. After talking with the players, I felt some players also don’t want to go.
‘You can’t really stay in such tight security environment for too long... The players that have agreed to travel there only want to play the T20s there. So they can finish the tour inside a week,’ he added.
Pakistan ended its decade long cycle of not playing a bilateral Test series on home soil, by hosting Sri Lanka for a two-Test series earlier this month and was expecting to continue this trend with the Bangladesh series.
But the BCB’s persistence on not wanting to play Tests in Pakistan has elicited a furious response from PCB members along with their head coach and players. The PCB in a fresh letter to the BCB asked for clarification for not wanting to play Test.
The PCB said if Bangladesh was unwilling to play Test despite being given foolproof security why no objection was raised when the Future Tour Programme was agreed last year.
Nazmul said that the BCB was prioritising the welfare of its players and coaching staff and hoped that the PCB will understand their predicament and carry out the two-Test series, which is part of the ICC World Test Championship, at a neutral venue.
‘We want cricket to return to their country. We have no reluctance about that. But we are going there after such a long time. We have to think about ourselves too, about our players and coaching staff.
‘I think they will definitely discuss it. They will try and understand our situation and host the Test at a neutral venue,’ Nazmul said.
Nazmul also revealed that the BCB was yet to receive a green signal from the government to travel to Pakistan even for the Twenty20 series, but was sure to acquire them in a few days and wanted to discuss the date and venue for the Twenty20 series after receiving a positive response from the PCB.
