Cricket: Bangladesh confirm tour of Pakistan
To conduct security review in January before visit in April.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has confirmed that its team will be touring Pakistan next April pending the results of a security inspection in January 2012, according to the board’s president Mustafa Kamal.
The news came after the two chairmen met, where the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Zaka Ashraf endorsed his Bangladesh counterpart Kamal as the next president of the International Cricket Council.
“Who could forget that it was Pakistan that proposed Bangladesh’s entry into Test cricket,” said Kamal in a statement. “We are indebted to them. Pakistani players have played in Bangladesh and have helped our cricketers a lot. We will also try to support Pakistan in any way we can.”
However, Kamal still needs to be approved by a majority of BCB directors with the final nomination to be handed over to the ICC by December 31.
Meanwhile, Ashraf added that the security situation in Pakistan was back to normal and safe enough to host international teams.
“All those things that you must have seen, they are over now,” he said. “That’s why we want to reorganise cricket and bring it back
to Pakistan.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2011.