Things between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have taken a hit for worse as the former board has straightaway cancelled the tours of its junior sides to Pakistan. The decision comes after several negotiation attempts between the two boards and it does seem that the bilateral ties between the two teams could be impacted drastically.
The situation looked dull once the BCB refused to send its team to Pakistan on account of poor safety standards and the ongoing terrorism issues in the other country. In return, the PCB wasn’t quite entertained and made the bold decision to not send the Pakistanis to Bangladesh in what was supposed to be Pakistan’s “home series”.
That was a tipping point for Bangladesh, as the BCB now has ensured that it’s A team and High-Performance outfit won’t tour Pakistan anytime in the near future. Instead, these teams will head to other nations once deals are finalised.
“We haven’t spoken about going to Pakistan since we heard their decision from the media,” said BCB official Nazmul Hasan. “The national team’s 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.”
Hasan added that arrangements were being made for the younger outfits to tour somewhere else.
“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 said.
Putting some light on Bangladesh’s upcoming annual schedule, Hasan said,
“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 concluded.
Hasan, after these comments, was trolled on social media by Pakistan’s fans as Pakistan defeated Bangladesh in a warm-up game.