Bangladesh gets government clearance only for T20I series in Pakistan

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has remained firm on their stance of sending their national side to Pakistan only for the three-match Twenty20 International series and not for a bilateral Test series.

The decision was conveyed by BCB president Nazmul Hassan following the country's cricket board's four-hour long board meeting at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. 

Hassan informed that they have got clearance from the government to send the side to Pakistan only for a 'short' period of time due to the prevailing unrest in the Middle-East.

“We have got security advice. We applied for Government Order (GO). Due to the particular situation in the Middle East, we have been told to stay there for a short period of time. We will play the Test series later,” the Dawn quoted the BCB president as saying. 

Notably, BCB and its Pakistan counterpart are yet to finalise the schedule of the tour which is slated to take place later this month as the hosts want to stage a full series consisting of two Tests and three T20s in their country.  

Earlier, a senior PCB official had earlier asked its counterparts to provide the reasons for their refusal to fulfill their obligation under the ICC Future Tour Programme (FTP) in the wake of Bangladesh's refusal to travel to Pakistan for the longest format of the game.

The PCB had also reminded its Bangladesh counterpart that Sri Lanka, who were targeted by the terrorists in March 2009, recently completed an incident-free two-leg tour of Pakistan--including a Test series in December 2019. 

Sri Lanka had visited Pakistan for three-match ODI series in Karachi and three-match T20I series in Lahore in September and October before playing a two-match Test series in Rawalpindi and Karachi in December.