Australia may tour Bangladesh in 2017
Talk of Australia touring Bangladesh arose again yesterday when Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland revealed that Australia's Test tour to Bangladesh may take place next year after the planned series last October was postponed due to security concerns.
Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland has confirmed that CA has recently held "off-line" discussions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and that the series has been pencilled into the international schedule for the 2017 southern hemisphere winter subject to security clearances, reports cricket.com.au.
BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury , when contacted, revealed that the BCB had discussions on the matter with the CA on the sidelines of the International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting in Dubai.
"We were close to finalising the FTP [Future Tours Programme] commitments with Australia till 2023 [when the current cycle will conclude]," Nizamuddin said. "We had also almost come to an agreement about Australia's pending tour of Bangladesh, which may take place in 2017."
The CEO was not ready to commit to a specific date for the tour, but it was learned that it may happen in September 2017.
Australia were scheduled to play two Tests and a tour match in Dhaka and Chittagong last October. But 48 hours before the squad was due to fly out, CA announced that departure had been delayed "due to concerns about the safety and security of the Australian team" based on advice received from the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
A week later, Sutherland announced that the tour had been postponed following information gleaned from DFAT, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and CA's internal head of security.
The CA had also decided against sending its under-19 team to the World Cup that took place in Bangladesh earlier this year. While their cricket teams did not come, their football team played a qualifying game in Dhaka last year.
On a separate note, it was also revealed that Bangladesh are expected to play a tri-series in Ireland involving New Zealand in May next year. The series is being organised in order to help Bangladesh and New Zealand acclimatise to English conditions ahead of the Champions Trophy which is set to take place in June next year.
“This series is almost confirmed. We have been talking about this ever since the T20 World Cup. It will help our players get set ahead of the Champions Trophy,” said BCB's cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan.
Ireland have met Bangladesh seven times in ODIs, including matches at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. They last met in Ireland in 2010, when a William Porterfield century helped Ireland to a one-all drawn series.
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