Will not pressurize Bangladesh players for Pakistan tour, states Nazmul Hasan
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BCB chief Nazmul Hasan shared that the consent of players will be primary once security clearance is obtained for the Pakistan tour. Hasan also shared that the board is planning to split the tour and wants to play the Test series in a neutral venue while the T20 series will be played in Pakistan.
While Sri Lanka play a Test series against Pakistan at their home, Bangladesh wait for security clearance ahead of their Pakistan tour early next year. Bangladesh will be playing two Tests and 3 T20Is during their stay.
While waiting for a green signal from their government, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief Nazmul Hasan shared consent of the players for the tour will be awaited by the board and no one will be pressurized. BCB had sent their women's side and U-16 team tour the nation earlier this year.
"We cannot force our players to go to Pakistan," Nazmul told Cricbuzz. "If any player doesn't want to go, he will not go there. We will not pressurize anyone. The board will not pressurize any player to go to Pakistan. I don't think it's time to talk about the replacement team. It will depend on the situations.
"We have applied to the government to know whether we will get the security clearance for Pakistan series. Two of our teams visited Pakistan before. One is the women's team and other is the boy's team. We are yet to get the security clearance for the national team. But if you ask me about security, it should be the same either it is the under-12 or the national team. We are assuming that we will get the security clearance. But we are yet to receive it. When we have it [the report] in our hand, we can inform about our decision.
"After security clearance, it will be the opinion of the cricketers. We want to hear who wants to go or who doesn't. There are a lot of matters including the board. After getting the clearance we will sit to discuss about these things. We hope that we can make a final decision within next four to five days," he said.
While PCB is considering hosting a day-night Test match at Karachi, Bangladesh are looking to split the tour viz. play only the T20I series in Pakistan and will request for the Test series to be staged at a neutral venue. According to sources, BCB feels that the players will be mentally exhausted to play the longer format of the game for a prolonged period under high security and for this reason they would much rather play a spilt series.
