Cricket cannot stop in a country: BCB chief Nizamuddin Chowdhury

Nizamuddin Chowdhury, Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) chief executive, has dismissed suggestions of playing at a neutral venue if England pulls out from playing in the country in the wake of the recent terrorist attack in Dhaka. The England cricket team is scheduled to tour to Bangladesh in September-October.

Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs skipper had recently, showed his concern over touring Bangladesh and suggested that playing at a neutral venue could be a “feasible” idea. But Chowdhury rejected the option and said playing outside Bangladesh is not a solution.

ICC’s Future Tours Programme has given the both the boards the discretion to take the final decision on conducting bilateral series. Therefore, if one board feels touring to some country will risk its team’s security, then they can pull out.

“We always believe this is never a solution. Cricket cannot stop in a country. We will make our best effort to fulfil the FTP commitment. The cricket operations of both BCB and ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) are in continuous communication regarding the England tour of Bangladesh in October. They are in discussion with the tour related matters especially the logistics,” Chowdhury was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

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Chowdhury said an ECB security team will be visiting Bangladesh in the coming months and added that there is nothing to read between the lines in relation to their visit as it is a “standard practice”.

“The security visit is a standard practice. Teams like England, Australia do this regularly. A security delegate from England was supposed to come last month but as they have tour of India after Bangladesh, I think they will do the security inspection of the two countries together. We will get to know when they get confirmation from the two boards,” he said.

Bangladesh has missed a considerable amount of cricketing action due security reason. The Australian team had given a miss to a scheduled tour to the country and later Cricket Australia also kept its Under 19 boys away from the ICC under World Cup which was successfully hosted in the country.

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Chowdhury, however, is hoping that Bangladesh’s recent track record of successfully hosting events like the Under-19 World Cup and the Asia Cup T20, would send out positive signals to England and other teams touring the country. The BCB chief executive also said that the ICC will come up with a protocol and suggest guidelines for security-related matters.

“The security issue has already been discussed at different levels in the ICC. There have been in discussion on security protocol. A guideline will soon be given from the ICC,” he said. “We have very good track record of hosting successful international events with the support from the government and the law enforcement departments. We believe to get the same support in future for hosting cricket in the country,” Chowdhry said.

England’s tour of Bangladesh, comprising three One-Day Internationals and two Tests, is scheduled to start on September 30.