The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had earlier announced on December 17 that it will tour Pakistan to play cricket matches on January 12 and 13.
However, today in a press conference, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said the team will not tour Pakistan due to security reasons.
"Bangladesh will not visit Pakistan for now," Hassan told reporters in the capital Dhaka.
"We've made the decision after considering the overall security situation in Pakistan and the concern that our people have expressed over the safety of their players."
"We've sent a letter to Pakistan three days ago explaining our position. We've decided to wait and see," Hassan added.
Foreign teams have refused to tour Pakistan since an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009, which left eight people dead and seven Sri Lankan players wounded.
The attack pushed Pakistan into a cricket exile as the national team was forced to play their home series at neutral venues in the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand and England.
Bangladesh had earlier accepted an invitation to tour Pakistan last April for a short limited-over series but the Dhaka High Court blocked the tour on security grounds.
COMMENTS (44)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Oops: Correct. Instead invite Afghanistan or Somalia and enjoy a balanced and competitive series.
@janan: Today there are so many Pakistanis overseas who cannot think of going there to visit their relatives even. Please get out to the real world and face the fact instead of denying the most obvious. So which team in the world will send their teams in Pakistan? Oh yes, may be Afghanistan (I personally doubt it seriously) or Somalia (no comments).
I have no comments if PCB wants to play some ransom game with its players over BPL. Its completely their decision.
@ Farukh Ali: Bad days never stay forever. Thanks for your pragmatic perspective. I also wish better days for Pakistan. But if PCB could take that pragmatic approach. Why Pakistan is chasing Bangladesh and getting so emotionally charged up instead doing some real improvements on security. Pakistani security apparatus is failing to protect their ministers or military bases today. If Pakistan improves there, then not just Bangladesh all the teams will chase Pakistan to get a tour schedule. It may sound harsh but the fact is even Afghanistan will hesitate to send its team to Pakistan. I take Afghanistan name because of proximity and security similarities. I know they are good team; may be much better and competitive opponent than Bangladesh.
@Paki:
@Nak, I agree with you. Pakistan should call back its team from India in protest.
"and take part in bhangra competitions instead"
PCB's reaction will be ----- They are afraid of Loosing hence, not coming for Pak tour
I know that there are just wasting out time by saying big "NO" in the end. They afraid of loosing game.
I'm Pakistani. But one thing is for sure, India could have never done so. Whenever, they will announce to visit Pakistan, they will come. No back tracking like BD. This....kabhi haan bhi naa....appapproach is BD's forte. PCB! Please forget them and think twice before talkingto them again. It is true that PCB has no choices but its time to continue efforts sans BD and concentrate more on domestic cricket. Long live Pak-India Cricket rivalry!!
Good, if the Pakistanis cannot protect their own citizens the minorities then how can they assure a visiting team like the Bangladeshis a safe passage?
I can understand Bangladesh players. Pakistans is under attack from many sides and the country is going through a bad time which is the worst in the history but I hope that everything will be good and insha'allah we believe in Allah(subhanahu wa'ta'ala) so he wills help us. But one thing I don't understand is why the BG team is changing their opinions everytime.
Pcb should not give NOC TO PAK players for BPL
PCB should not give NOC to players for BPL.
They can play ina neutral venue like India or perhaps sri lanka...
Let's not forget not every society is a crime-free society. I know bombings do take place in Pakistan. But when we assure you the security means we are better to take care of it. We, Pakistanis, granted them the presidential escort throughout the series (which they don't even deserve), but just for the sake to restore cricket in our home grounds we had to. We refused to take the bounty of ICC vice chairmanship and gifted it to Kamal Of Bangladesh as a good gesture and in return kamal promised Bangla will play but their supreme court played a double-game that time.
We won't protest or say a single word to Bangladesh for their double-policy (agreeing at one hand and denying on the second day of it). Instead, we will act maturely to re-instate that, our players don't have time to come and play your BPL. Alhumdulillah, we have a bright future in both the cricket and country awaiting. My Pakistani Brothers and sisters not to worry about anything happening around. Bad days do not stay for long and neither do good days. JazakAllah!It is really difficult to decide who is more foolish, PCB, or BCB?
As a Pakistani cricket fan, I believe that this is a correct decision by the BCB. Let us all try not to live in denial. We are living in a country where cellphones are shut off without prior notice, people are killed in the name of religion, street crime and target killings are on the rise. As citizens of this country, we ourselves are afraid to venture out late at night due to fear. When we Pakistanis have no guarantee of our own security, how can we expect an outsider to believe us when we say that we will provide fool proof security?
Also I believe that its about time we stop blaming BCCI, RAW or MOSSAD for our problems. We ourselves are to blame and its only us who can solve it.
Not interested in series with Bangladesh.
@AA: Actually this time around BCB came to PCB not the other way around. In fact Pakistan didn't take much interest because they knew Bangladesh would go back on its word.
i don,t under stand why people think about negetive think .bd team did not come only security reason nothing else if pakistan is safer country bd will go there of course.we are never do politics with cricket in bangladesh so we want to play cricket with pakistan but problem for pakistan situation its not under controll. our problem is we never want to go there only at bad situation.so all ppl thinking pasitive mode ,
@Nak, I agree with you. Pakistan should call back its team from India in protest.
Don't blame any country, rather improve your security situation. Not only Bangladesh, all the test playing countries will play in Pakistan if they see things are improving. When ministers are killed, army and air force bases are attacked, UN volunteers are killed, mosques are attacked, how can a country take the risk of sending their boys there?
@Cacha:
Please ask Mr. Zaka about it
With general elections round the corner there was disaster in waiting for any cricket teams. Good move by BD. I am not expecting any teams to visit Pakistan until terrorists are locked up and hanged. Pakistan is now the laughing stock of this world - you just read any western press and you will know why I am saying that.
Bangladesh has stabbed us in the back by not touring Pakistan. But that's not the end of the world guys. Lets pray that our law and order situation improves in future but till that time and after that Pakistan would get to know which nations are friendly and which are not. So next time if Pakistan had to tour Bangladesh (as accordingly to ICC FTP) Pak should continue that tour but with B team so that our youngsters could get some sort of exposure and their viewership should drop significantly. Whatever Mr. Zaka Ashraf's effort should be appreciated. He is definitely working hard for betterment of Pakistan cricket.Good Luck :-)
If they can provide security to others, why dont they provide it to their own country mens. Sensible decision by Bangla Desh Cricket Team, Why do they risk their own Team and people, when our own people are not secure.
@nak Indian behind this, they don’t see Pakistan to go forward
But are Pakistanis trying to go forward?
I am happy BD is not visiting. Would have been a one sided series anyway
@nak: How can any country help Pakistan go forward when its own citizens want to drag it backward to the seventh century ?
South Africa were in the cricketing wilderness for twenty years. Because of its Apartheid policies no foreign team would come. This did not stop the enthusiasm for the game or stop it from producing good crocketers. We should learn from them and seek ways and means to strenghten and market our domestic cricket. Good times will come. We are going through a very bad phase in our history but it will not be forever.
Indian behind this, they don't see Pakistan to go forward.
Bangladesh has made correct decision of not coming here in this lawless jungle.How can you provide security to the team when GHQ,Mehran Base,Kamra,Peshawar Airport and important politicians like Bilour could not be protected. The perpetrators of SLanka team attackers have not been persecuted yet.In previous 24 hours, levies and Shia pilgrims have been given blood bath.Pakistani security forces have lost confidence of its own people, how foreigners can trust such security establishment.Time is running out for Pakistan,either chose mullahs/taliban or normal civilized living.
India will win the next two matches and suddenly the Bengali's will announce that they will be touring Pakistan(as per the decided date)
In my opinion the decision taken by BCB makes sense. 21 levies and 25 Shias are killed in last 48 hours only. One got to be a fool if one expects a foreign cricket team to visit Pakistan in such circumstances.
Now Pakistani players shouldn't go play BPL. They promised to visit pakistan so that they can have Mustafa kamal as ICC President. They promissed again so that Pakistani players can be part of BPL auction. Now PCB should take a stand and doesn't give NOCs to players to play in BPL
Who even wants you to tour? Playing with the Bangladeshi side would instead of improving worsen our team. Bangladesh deserves to play with the associate nations which is their real LEVEL after all. Happy Playing days with Netherlands, Kenya and Ireland. You don't deserve to play the tigers of Pakistan! =)
PCB lets not invite Bangladesh ever to visit Pakistan....... what sort of assurances do they need....and why do they have to agree in the first place when they have to cancel despite joint reviews at the venues. Shame on Bangla , I am so happy we beat them in the Asia cup
We don't want any of these teams to visit Pakistan.. We are happy playing outside our homeland... No need for BD or India..
I know many would disagree with me and would blame Bangladesh for being inconsistent, but I just dont understand why PCB is trying to convince international teams to play when we don't know what will happen tomorrow. Come on you couldn't save your governor, your ministers, your army/airforce bases from the attack then how can you guarantee fool proof security. God forbid if they come and something happens, then you just forget to have international teams to come here even 10 years after the security has improved. Stop begging now and just get on with it by accept the reality. Wait for good times and then resume the effort. You won't need to beg for the teams to come, they'll themself ask you to invite them