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Cricket Australia has announced Australia’s upcoming tour of Bangladesh will be postponed due to purported security concerns.
The tour, which was to include a tour match against a Bangladeshi XI along with two Test matches, had been scheduled for October. There has been no indication as to when the series will be postponed to, or whether it will go ahead at all.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said that CA had no other alternative but to postpone the tour. After receiving advice from the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) that Australians and Australian interests would potentially be terrorist targets, CA engaged an independent security firm to make an assessment before deciding that the players would not depart as scheduled.
“This has been a very difficult decision. Following the most recent information from Australian Government agencies and our own security advisors, we have decided that, regrettably, we have no alternative but to postpone the tour,” Mr Sutherland said.
“Over the last few days we have sought to obtain as much information as possible about the risks for Australians travelling to Bangladesh.
“We had hoped that the security concerns would fade, but unfortunately the advice we have received from government, our own security experts and independent security advisors has clearly indicated that there are now high risks to our people should they make the trip.”
The cancellation is a blow for Bangladesh and Bangladeshi cricket, and in addition to security concerns in Pakistan represents another Test-playing nation where foreign teams have refused to tour. There are no indications as to how the cancellation will affect other scheduled tours in future.
Sutherland said that while the tour was a priority for an Australian cricket team on the rebuild, the primary concern of CA was the security of the Australian players.
“[F]rom an Australian perspective, the safety of our players and officials is our highest priority. We will work with the BCB to reschedule the tour as soon as possible.”
As reported in The Roar recently, the tour had been under significant doubt for weeks as government security warnings increased. There had been suggestions that Australia “were using the security situation as a smokescreen for reasons varying from their lack of desire to play against the low-profile Bangladesh to a fear that they would lose the series.”
However, Sutherland reiterated that the players and officials – not to mention fans from both countries – had been looking forward to the tour, and that cancelling it was unfortunately the only option.
“Cricket Australia and the BCB both exist to stage international cricket. It is therefore so disappointing that external influences have affected a tour that many Bangladeshis and Australians were looking forward to,” Sutherland said.
Australia’s next Test series will now be against the visiting New Zealanders, with the first match starting on November 5 at the ‘Gabba.
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