CA’s Head of Security Sean Carroll, Australian team manager Gavin Dovey and team security manager Frank Dimasi had spent Monday in high-level talks with Bangladesh’s top security and intelligence authorities.
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Hassan said: “They have information that Australian interest is under threat but that is not confined to Bangladesh, it is also in other neighbouring countries”.
Steven Smith-led Australia were supposed to reach Dhaka on Monday for a two-Test series.
Asked whether the Test series was on or off, BCB president Nazmul Hassan, who attended the meeting, told reporters, “can’t say anything specific right now”. Bangladesh are scheduled to host Australia for the first Test from October 9-13 in Chittagong and the second from October 17-21 in Dhaka.
The DFAT, which provides travel advice to Australians planning to go overseas, in its notice said, “There is reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian interests in Bangladesh”.
Six of the 14 members are now in India with the A squad competing with the India A in the three-day match now underway at Bangalore, but the shocking omission is that of Sabbir Rahman who had scored a brilliant counter-attacking century against India A in the first innings of the ongoing three-day match.
In a foreign travel advice update on Monday, it also advised its officials “to limit attendance at events where westerners may gather”.
Minister Khan on Sunday rejected as “groundless” any security threat to the tourists and said he hoped the games would go ahead.
Carroll alongwith two different officers would now meet Bangladesh’s house minister to debate the matter.
BCB chief executive Nizam Uddin Chowdhury had earlier said he was “expecting all the matches to be played on schedule”.
“We were surprised by the sudden decision taken only two days before their departure (for Dhaka)”, he said. But I have told them that Bangladesh is one of the safest places for cricket, especially now.
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They will brief Australia’s Test players and CA officials on their return to Melbourne.
