Talks between CA and BCB over the fixtures of potential Australia tour

Cricket Australia and Bangladesh Cricket Board are in talks in regards to the tentatively scheduled Australia’s tour of Bangladesh. This tour was scheduled to take place in 2015 but CA decided to call off the tour citing security fears.

As proposed in 2015, Australia is supposed to tour Bangladesh for a 2-test series but CA wants to change the tour to a One-day International tour instead because of Australia’s scheduled ODI tour of India in October. CA believes that an ODI tour will help the team to prepare for the challenges ahead in India. All this, of course, will only happen if Bangladesh is deemed safe enough to tour by CA’s security advisors.

“We are still hopeful of touring Bangladesh in the near future but the safety of players and officials will always come first. We will continue to monitor advice from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and our own security advisors about the security risk for any future tours of the Australian team in Bangladesh and make a decision based on this advice closer to any potential tour,” ESPNcricinfo quoted the CA as saying.

BCB, though, welcomes Australia to tour their country. They still are insisting the CA to let the tour go ahead with the original 2-match Test series as Bangladesh have been in their best Test form ever. They have recently beaten Sri Lanka in their own backyard, which was a first in their Test history. They also beat England in a Test at home last year, proving their growth as a Test team over the years.

Australia had pulled out from the 2015 tour when intelligence reports of their federal government found out the prospect of a possible military attack on the touring Australians. Australia subsequently did not send their U-19 Team to take part in the ICC U-19 World Cup held in Bangladesh last year.

While security still remains a concern, CA and BCB appear to have all but finalised the tour to happen. It will be interesting to see what the national cricketers think about the proposed tour.

Australia has played just 4 Tests against Bangladesh and the last Test took place in 2006.