England's tour of Bangladesh to proceed as per plan

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that the England's tour of Bangladesh later this year will proceed as per the original schedule.

Due to a terrorist attack in Dhaka in July, the tour came under security concerns and a three-member ECB delegation conducted a pre-tour inspection recently.

The ECB delegation conducted a comprehensive inspection of the venues and the team hotels while also meeting with the top officials of the Bangladesh government including the home minister.

Reg Dickason, the ECB head of security, David Leatherdale, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) and the ECB’s director of cricket John Carr were the members of the three-member delegation.

The tour has now been greenlit after the ECB delegation was satisfied with the level of security promised by the Bangladesh government.

Dickason led a briefing which was attended by Alastair Cook, Eoin Morgan, Leatherdale, Carr, director of England cricket, Andrew Strauss and the ECB chief executive Tom Harrison.

Strauss clarified that the board and the PCA have complete confidence in the assessment of the security delegation and said that the tour will go ahead as per schedule.

“England’s tour of Bangladesh will continue as planned,” said Strauss after the meeting.

“Safety and security of players and management are always paramount.

“We’ve received a thorough risk assessment, had excellent insight into the current situation and been fully briefed on security commitments.

“ECB and PCA have the utmost confidence in the advice and support we’ve been given.”

Furthermore, Strauss also said that the board discussed the issue with the players in an open meeting and added that the ECB will be open to any questions or concerns that the players have regarding the tour.

“Tonight we discussed details with the players and management in an open meeting.

“They asked lots of questions, have time to ask more and will clearly want to take it all in - we understand that.

“Selection for the tour will be made after the end of the summer internationals.

“We will, as always, continue to monitor the situation right up to and throughout the tour.”

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the England players are likely to be given an option to skip the tour without any ramifications, if they or their families are not comfortable with the situation.

As per the original schedule, England will arrive in Bangladesh on 30th September and will play a total of three warm-up games, as many One-Day Internationals and two Test matches.

Following the tour of Bangladesh, England will move on to their campaign in India which consists of a five-match Test series that gets underway on 9th November.

© Cricket World 2016