Pakistan’s decision to call off their tour of Bangladesh in July and August has taken the BCB by surprise, though the board said it was yet to receive official communication from the PCB.
“We are really surprised. Even a month ago we knew that the tour was on,” BCB’s media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said. “There was a discussion between both board chiefs during this week’s ICC meeting in Dubai. This upcoming series was ours to host according to the FTP. In 2015 the two boards went into a deal that we will play two series for the following two years in Bangladesh.
“There was even a financial issue, which was dealt with at the time. They said they wanted to play here [in Bangladesh] till 2017. They wanted Bangladesh to play two T20s in Pakistan before continuing the series here. We don’t want to play there. We want to stick to our schedule, which has the whole series being played in Bangladesh.”
Yunus said the BCB had learned of the PCB’s decision through the media. “If the series does get officially cancelled, we have to go into discussion with them. We have cleared the financial issues so there’s no need to talk about those things now. We haven’t heard anything from them in official correspondence. We heard it through the media that they want to cancel the tour.”
Bangladesh last toured Pakistan in 2007-08, for a five-ODI series. Since then, Pakistan have toured Bangladesh twice, in 2011-12 and 2015. They PCB said it was cancelling this year’s tour because Bangladesh had not reciprocated with a return visit.
If the tour is off, Bangladesh will have a break in July this year, because their next fixtures after the Champions Trophy in June is a proposed home series against Australia in late August. (ESPNCricinfo)
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent.
