Bangladesh promise Australia with top level security

Bangladesh promise Australia with top level security: The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Monday promised to provide the Australian Cricket Team with the best level of security, saying it was shocked to hear that the tourists were considering cancelling the tour altogether.

After meeting Cricket Australia (CA) officials in Dhaka, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the Aussies would get security usually reserved for visiting heads of state if they went ahead with the tour starting this week. “The highest security protocol will be provided for the Australian cricket team,” Khan told reporters.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan said the Australian foreign ministry’s advice to delay the team’s departure on Sunday “has shocked me”.

“This is very disappointing for us. There is no risk for them in Bangladesh,” BCB president Nazmul Hassan told reporters.

Australia are set to depart for Bangladesh late on Tuesday but will await security advisories before going ahead over fears that militants could attack the national cricket team.

Cricket Australia’s anti-corruption and security manager Sean Carroll and two other Australian officials met top security and intelligence figures in Dhaka on Monday, along with BCB chief Hassan, in a bid to find a way forward.

Australia were to depart on Sunday but the visit was put on hold after the foreign affairs ministry in Canberra warned that “militants may be planning to target Australian interests”.

“This is not one of the ones you want to get wrong,” Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard said Monday.

“Today is a big day, we have a lot of meetings, a lot of people on the ground. We want to make sure we are not under-reacting, but also not over-reacting. The advice we got was pretty direct against Australians and we want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence. We’ve bought ourselves 72 hours, but Cricket Australia is not going to put the players at risk” he added.

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. A three-day warm-up match was set to start on October 3 in Fatullah but is likely to be delayed.

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