Published: Dec 17, 2012, 05:49 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 17, 2012, 05:49 PM (IST)
Bangladesh will become the first team to tour Pakistan post-attack on the Sri Lankan team bus at Lahore © AFP
Dhaka: Dec 17, 2012
Bangladesh have agreed to tour Pakistan early next year and become the first team to play international cricket there since gunmen attacked Sri Lanka‘s team bus in 2009, its cricket board said on Monday.
“We have in principle agreed to tour Pakistan. It’s a commitment made by former BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) president Mustafa Kamal. We are keeping his word,” Enayet Husain Siraj, the board’s head of cricket operations, told AFP.
“The tour is subject to security clearance,” he added.
Pakistan have not hosted any international series since an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009. Foreign teams have since refused to tour the country over security fears.
Bangladesh had also 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.
Officials have said they see no judicial bar to the latest tour which Bangladesh officials say is expected to include a combination of 50-over and Twenty20 internationals.
In October Pakistan successfully hosted two Twenty20 exhibition matches involving a group of largely retired stars from South Africa, the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
