Cricket Australia said Sunday it would seek assurances from its Bangladesh counterpart before proceeding with the team’s October tour, amid government fears that “militants may be planning to target Australian interests”.
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Chief executive James Sutherland said in a statement that recent advice from a range of Australian government sources had identified a potential security risk to Australian interests in Bangladesh.
“There is no alarm regarding security as far as we are concerned and we have taken the opinion of all relevant agencies because safety of the Australian team is our priority as it is with all visiting teams to Bangladesh”.
“We are hopeful the tour will be on schedule”.
“The response at this stage is very much to get our head of security on the ground”, Sutherland said.
“We are surprised, because the situation in Bangladesh is very calm”, he said.
“Meetings will commence on Monday and we’ll have a much better understanding of things from there”.
Bangladesh Police say they have no credible information about the possible attacks and see no risks to Australian citizens now staying in the country.
Bangladesh meanwhile, haven’t played a Test against Australia since 2006, and are consequently desperate for the opportunity to host one of world cricket’s heavyweights.
The short nature of the two-Test tour gives Cricket Australia little time to make a decision, and it would be unlikely that the matches could be rescheduled to another location at such short notice. Clarke said he was disappointed that during his global career of more than a decade he had never been able to tour Pakistan, due to security concerns.
The second Test is scheduled in Dhaka on October 17.
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Australia are scheduled to play a three-day warm-up game against Bangladesh Cricket Board XI on 3rd October at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah.
